INTERVENTION BY ARCHBISHOP JOHN P. FOLEY,
PRESIDENT, PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR SOCIAL COMMUNICATIONS,
INTERNATIONAL CATHOLIC UNION OF THE PRESS (UCIP),
JUBILEE CELEBRATION, PONTIFICAL GREGORIAN UNIVERSITY,
ROME, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2002

My brothers and sisters in Christ:
Thank you for having come to Rome for the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the International Catholic Union of the Press. It is a gesture much appreciated by our Holy Father and by all of us here in Rome who wish to see UCIP grow and prosper in service to journalists and indeed to the universal Church.
UCIP finds its identity as an international Catholic communications organization.
Other organizations represented here this evening -- l'Associazione della stampa estera in Italia e la Federazione Nazionale della Stampa Italiana -- also have specific and quite valid identities, and their presidents do great honor to UCIP by their presence and by their messages.
Without compromising in any way the journalistic professionalism of its members -- indeed by contributing greatly to that professionalism and integrity, UCIP offers a very specific organizational identity to its members: it is Catholic.
The members of UCIP believe in a transcendent and personal God -- this in a world in which many profess no such belief. The members of UCIP believe in the fact that God became man in Jesus Christ -- this in a world in which even some who call themselves Christian express doubts about the divinity of Jesus. The members of UCIP believe that Jesus established a Church to carry on His work and that His vicar to lead the universal Church as the successor of St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, is the Bishop of Rome, the Pope.
These beliefs do not mean that the members of UCIP, as professional journalists, are not free to report that many people in the world do not believe in God; that many people in the world do not believe in Jesus; that many people in the world do not belong to the Catholic Church; that some Catholics say that they do not believe all that the Church teaches or that some Catholics, indeed some bishops or priests, do not live according to what the Church teaches in the name of Jesus. Being a Catholic journalist does not mean that you can or should ignore reality.
Being a Catholic journalist means above all being committed to the truth -- even truths about which we may personally be sad.
Being a Catholic journalist, however, means being a journalist in a special context -- a context which provides support and indeed encouragement in telling the truth, in exposing evil and in recognizing and encouraging virtue.
Being a Catholic journalist means knowing the importance of having a well formed conscience which we know we are bound to follow, no matter what pressures we may face or indeed no matter what price we may be called upon to pay.
Many years ago, when I worked for a polling organization in the United States, my employer wanted me to make up some interviews to fulfill a quota which he had to meet. When I said that I could not do that, he said: "That's the trouble with you Catholics; I like having you in my accounting department, because I know that you're not going to steal; I don't always like you in editorial matters because you don't follow orders. I admire your ethics, son, but you won't compromise to give me the results I need and want." I told him that I considered his remarks a compliment, but I also told him that he could keep his job.
For me, the International Catholic Union of the Press provides a type of international institutional support for personal and professional integrity, for a recognition of the primacy of the religious and spiritual dimension of human life, for the inviolability of conscience and for the highest standards of professional excellence.
As an editor in the United States, I was proud to have been a member of the Catholic Press Association and, thus, to have been associated with UCIP for seventeen years; as president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, I am proud to have been a contact on behalf of the Holy See with the International Catholic Union of the Press for the past eighteen years. Thus, I have been with you for almost half your history.
You have had a very important history -- and I am convinced that you will have an even more important future, not only defending freedom of the press and the highest professional standards, but also being personal witnesses to faith in God, in Jesus Christ, in the Church which He founded and in the brotherhood He wished us all to have in Him in peace and in love. Thank you.

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