Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Havana (Agenzia Fides) – The global portal with “wiki” management of the media in the Catholic Church (www.intermirifica.net) has just published the list of the Catholic media organisations in Cuba. There are about 60 agencies involved in social communication in this Country where the Church has no radio or television stations of her own. There are 52 publications (printed and online), at least six communications offices and two production houses, all with little access to the Internet.
According to Father Justo Ariel Beramendi, Bolivian priest responsible for Latin America for the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, the communications landscape of the Church in Cuba which emerges from this list reflects the evolution of instruments of proclaiming the Gospel in the context of local history. So after decades of silence, small publications have appeared that are becoming popular.
In 1995, the Network of the Church in Latin America created an inter-diocesan digital network of communications, through the Apostolic Nuncio and the Episcopal Conference. With the global Internet boom in the late '90s, despite the limited access on the island, some bulletins began to be published on the web. But the effort to enter the digital age had and still has encounters great difficulty due to the restricted access to the Internet for Cubans who still can not access it from home. So there are few pastoral workers who can systematically use the network. But the real challenge is changing attitudes. To take up this new form of communication has been a gradual but effective process. Fr Beramendi cites as an example the Pilgrimage of the 'Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre' throughout the dioceses of Cuba, which was followed by many people around the world thanks to a group of Cubans who were able to provide news, photos, testimonies and much more material over the web. (CE) (Agenzia Fides 21/02/2011)
