Catholic Voices' impact on media coverage of the 2010 papal visit

Direct IMPACT that Catholic Voices had on the media contributing to the perceived success of the Pope's visit in 2010 amidst the volatile negative climate surrounding the Catholic Church in that year

Even if people are interested in knowing about various religions and getting inspired from them, a lot many get put off from the topic when religious intolerance begets riots and uproars in a city, an instance that was observed in America when the issue of burning the Korans arose. Also, the issue of the New York Islamic centre sparked a number of controversies (Ingebretsen, 2005). One way that the Catholic Church and Pope have been able to avoid such criticism in the past is by befriending the media. One of the most recent examples of this is the formation of the group -- Catholic Voices -- the primary purpose and objective of this group was to "amplify the voice of the Catholic Church in the British public square, especially in the media and in public debates, by training and briefing articulate young Catholics to act as speakers; offering media skills training to the Church; bringing together and nurturing Catholic public intellectuals; and making available a team of Catholics to put the Church's case to the media"[footnoteRef:1] [1: CV Future Coordinators Report Oct 2010-page 1]

The paper will aim to understand the history of the media and the Catholic Church. The first few pages will highlight organization like International Catholic Organization for Cinema (OCIC) and the International Catholic Organization for Radio and Television (Unda) that have existed over a long course of time with the sole aim of the Catholic Church and Pope befriending the media's structures in the radio and film industry to establish control over what was released to the masses. The aim was to always project a positive image of the Church and the Pope's activities. The focus will be on the progression of penetration that was made by the Catholic Church since the early 1920s. The paper will then turn the focus to the Catholic Voices group and analyze whether its creation was actually a majorly innovative move by the Church or Pope; furthermore it will also be discussed whether or not the actual formation of the group and the training of all its member was necessary in light of the history that the Church and media have had.

The International Catholic Organization for Cinema (OCIC) and the International Catholic Organization for Radio and Television (Unda) were both formed in 1928. In 2001 these two organizations were merged and SIGNIS and what is known as the World Catholic Association for Communication came into being. The OCIC and Unda had one major common interest: to make the Catholics, who had good professional positions in the film or television media, come together. The reasons why the Catholics had always been so interested in the television and film media is very obvious: to propagate Christian or Catholic values in the large number of people who watch these films or listen to these radio shows. Although, both these organizations were formed by the Vatican, they were not influenced by Vatican as they worked in a democratic fashion, thus their policies were made by the prominent media members. Since SIGNIS was formed by merging OCIC and Unda, its archives have materials from both the organizations.

The Catholics, since the very start realized the benefits and the negative aspects of film media[footnoteRef:2]. The International Union for the Catholic Women's League, in April 1928 invited the Catholic representatives who were actively involved in the cinema. The basic purpose for inviting these representatives was to internationally organize their work in the realm of theater management, production, film reviews and distributions, in order to help the Catholic families and their children. The Catholic representatives were called from 15 Latin American and European countries.[footnoteRef:3] [2: Roland Cosandey, Andre ' Gaudreault and Tom Gunning (eds) Une invention du Diable? Cine ' ma des premiers temps et religion (An invention of the Devil. Religion and Early Cinema) (Laval/Lausanne, 1992). Guido Convents, Cattolici e Cinema (1896 -- 2001), in: Gian Piero Brunetta (ed.) Storia del cinema mondiale. Americhe, Africa, Asia, Oceania. Le cinematografi nazionali, Volume 5 (Torino, 2001), 485 -- 517. Robert Molhant, Catholics in the Cinema. A Strange History of Belief and Passion. Beginnings: 1895 -- 1935 (Brussels, 2000).] [3: OCIC was in the 1950s until the 1980s very involved in the International Centre of Films for Children and Young People (ICFCYP/CIFEJ through the Belgian Dominican Fr Leo Lunders 1905 -- 1986), who was an international pioneer of children's cinema and of censorship. [Leo Lunders, La censure des films et l'admission des enfants au cine ' ma a ' travers le monde (Brussels, 1959) or Leo Lunders, Los problemas del cine y la juventud (Madrid, 1957).]]

This first International Catholic Congress for Cinema resulted in the formation of the International Catholic Office for Cinema (OCIC). OCIC's main task was to ensure the promotion of the films that promoted Christian values as well as edified the film audiences. In those early days the main concern of the OCIC was the promotion of good and quality films. In the hopes of doing so, many large networks of the Catholic organizations rose who were basically concerned with writing good and educational scripts for the children as well as screening the films for the children. OCIC tried to approach the film industry by itself as well. Dr. Georg Ernst from Leofilm A.G. (founded in 1917) in Munich, was the first president of OCIC[footnoteRef:4]. The activities performed by the OCIC as well as the Unda quickly became very important for the countries in the non-west as, their activities were very important for the Catholic missionaries of the non-western side who were dealing with the media (Convents and Beeck, 2009). [4: See the history of OCIC written by the Canadian Le ' o Bonneville (1920 -- 2007), published as Soixante-dix ans au service du Cine ' ma et de l'audiovisuel (Quebec, OCIC, 1998)]

The Catholic radio producers, in the late 1920's realized that the radio, like film industry could prove to be a very important channel for spreading Catholic values among masses. They also wanted to use the radio to stand against the communism and fascism (in the 1930s). Radio Veritas was founded during the cold war in Philippines-even now in 2008 this is still an important radio channel in the Asia[footnoteRef:5] -- along with the policy of establishing radio stations in Latin America and Africa. Catholic radio stations, being present in the Muslim countries, such as Pakistan is significant and very well documented[footnoteRef:6]. [5: In 1963, the German Government granted the assistance upon the request of the Archbishop of Manila to build a powerful radio. After six years, in 1969, Radio Veritas Asia was inaugurated and test broadcasts for various languages were conducted. Today, with Radio Vatican, it is one of the most powerful Catholic radio stations in Asia.] [6: Nadeem John Shakir, Pakistan 50 years of Catholic Broadcasting Association Lahore, SIGNIS Media, 3 (Brussels, 2006), 24.]

There were many radio stations in the region of Latin America that played a very important role in the struggle for the distinction and privileges of the working class[footnoteRef:7]. Unda had the policies since the very beginning that encouraged the Catholics to not only make the religious programs but also educational and social. In order to do that, Unda encouraged the Catholics to work with the private as well as public broadcasters, because initially most of the catholic radio channels in the Asia were very conservative and usually ignored the social issues. Television, like radio also played a very important role as it catered a very large number of audiences and thus crossed many boundaries[footnoteRef:8]. [7: Bolivia. 50 an " os de Radio Pi ' o XII o el Indio-Radio, SIGNIS Media, (2), 24 -- 25 (Brussels, 2007). Costa Rica. Treinta an " os de radio cultural por los campesinos, SIGNIS Media, (2) (Brussels, 2007), 24.] [8: In 1979, the Jesuit Kevin Francis Kersen submitted his thesis for a Ph.D. At the University of Wisconsin -- Madison: The structures, activities and policies of Unda, the International Catholic Association for radio and television (6 Volumes), in which he gives a description of the members and the organisation of Unda in the 1970s.]

Both Unda and OCIC had strong similarities among themselves. Not only did they both have the same goals, but they also had the same central managerial configuration and regional establishments across the world with a huge and widespread network of national members. It has been observed that Unda and OCIC have a very strong and obvious bond with Belgium and the previous Belgian colonies (Convents and Beeck, 2009). Since 1933 OCIC's secretariat headquarters have been in Brussels. OCIC, since 1928 has had four secretary generals:

Fr Joseph Reymond from France,

Fr Jean Bernard from Luxembourg) and Yvonne de Hemptinne and Robert Molhant from Belgium (Convents and Beeck, 2009)

Furthermore, there a toal of 12 secretary generals employed by Unda including the following:

Mgr Bernhard Marschall from Germany,

Fr John Stapleton from UK,

Fr Colm Murphy from Irland,

Fr Victor Sunderaj from India,

Fr Jean Desautels and Fr Pierre Belanger from Canada,

Franc, ois Van Hoek and Fr Joseph Schneuwly from Switzerland

Fr John Dito, Paul Andrien Speet, Joseph Diening and Fr Bonaventura Jansen from Holland (Convents and Beeck, 2009)

The Catholic Church's contact with their president, committee members as well as its members, their friends and acquaintances in the media is full of very important information and more often than not their correspondence with all these people goes beyond the neat and clean organizational tasks (Convents and Beeck, 2009).

Although initially Unda and OCIC were both founded separately and had no connection to one another what so ever, but after the 1960's both these organizations started coming together more and more as they started dividing the tasks, that before they were doing separately, among themselves. Unda started working with UNESCO in the activities regarding the media education[footnoteRef:9] whereas; OCIC became concerned with the internet and video productions. Since 1980's all the congresses and meetings were being held jointly and later on in 2001 due to the need for one large organization devoted to all the media of the world, these two organizations merged into one organization known as SIGNIS. [9: See the Unda publication Educommunication Nouvelles, which started in may 1987 as a trimestrial bulletin, which covers the (Catholic) activities in this field worldwide and is not restricted to the Western hemisphere. It goes also from Argentina, the Philippines to the Fiji islands.]

Mass media and apostolate

In order to put a Catholic stamp on the usage of all the major mass media such as photos, videos and other productions both the Unda and OCIC improved their efforts. The extent of the OCIC's engagement in the field of film criticism could be estimated by the fact that they were present at all the major festivals such as La Havana, Mar del Plata, Moscow, Venice Cannes, Valladolid, Mannheim, Ouagadougou or Berlin (Convents and Beeck, 2009).

This was the approach that was, according to what was expressed in the Encyclical Vigilante Cura (1936), where the OCIC is warned about the disadvantages or dangers of the film world, but along with that they are also told about the advantages of it[footnoteRef:10]. OCIC was encouraged by Vigilante Cura to have their representatives in all the major countries in the world in order to make sure that they share their own experiences as well as further extend the work of the national Catholic film organizations. OCIC was recognized as the only global and international Catholic structure organization for cinema by the Vatican as early as in the 1930s. The International Review of Film was launched by Unda between 1949 and late 1950s. Later on this magazine became one of the few most prestigious magazines regarding international publications about films and articles of very popular Catholic intellects such as Henri Agel[footnoteRef:11]. [10: The OCIC/Unda archives documents also the Papal encyclicals concerning media like Vigilante Cura (1936), Miranda Prorsus (1957) or Inter-Mirifica (1963), and different pastoral letters and instructions or documents on social communications published by the Pontifical Council of Social Communications, like Communio e Progresso (1971), Aetatis Novae (1992) or Ethics in Communication (2000).] [11: The history of these OCIC magazines (and their different language editions) -- La Revue Internationale du Cinema, OCIC information, OCIC Info, Cine & Media -- is well documented until 1998 by L. Bonneville, 57 -- 63 and 223 -- 225. Unda had its own publications and newsletters, also in French and English.]

Since the meetings held in the 1930s it was decided that the Catholics should review all the films in every country that came on the commercial screens. For that reasons archives were built by the national organizations, which for many years were the only documentation centers on films in Cuba (1936) Italy (1928), Belgium (1930), Egypt (1946), Germany (1930), Sri Lanka, Senegal and so on. All this is documented in the archives of OCIC along with the reports of international study day that was held on this topic as well as all the magazines, letters and year books. The OCIC used the films as an instrument to spread evangelization which is very interesting when compared with the Legion of Decency in the U.S. The comparison is one that shows a very unconstructive approach towards cultural morality by the Catholic church, which in turn, can taint the entire standing of the Catholic Church when it comes to faith and morals in general[footnoteRef:12]. [12: Walfredo Pin " era and Mar? ' a Caridad Cumana ', Mirada al cine cubano (Brussels, 1999), 109 -- 118. The Catholic centre of cinema in Cairo organises every year one of the most attended national film festivals in Egypt. In doing so it is the oldest film festival in Africa: Ida Ghali, Egypte. Festival de la centrale Catholique de cinema, SIGNIS Media, (2), 27 (Brussels, 2007). Here Ghali reviews the 55th edition of the festival. The Catholics (a minority) in Sri Lanka have organised the national film festival in the country for years.]

Unda has been working on this same phenomenon as well. Since 1950s, especially in the 1960s, its policies regarding radio and TV have been not only to make the people know the Catholic values and spirituality but they have also been working on the human rights[footnoteRef:13]. [13: Angela Ann Zukowski and Pierre Be ' langer (ed.) Radio Presence. A Collection of International Stories & Experiences (Brussels, 2000). See articles such as: Radio vs. dictators, Unda Newsletter, x (5) (Brussels, June 1966), 1, about the role of Radio Soleil in Haiti against Jean Claude Duvalier. The same can be found in the Philippines (against Marcos) and in Peru (against Fujimori).]

The original research on the work of OCIC was made possible because of the availability of all the archival materials. It made us realize and understand the extent of the strong bond which is present between the Unda, OCIC and Vatican. The document also tells about the movement which took place in the 1960s because of which the Vatican realized that OCIC is an independent organization having appreciated and awarded works in films like the Midnight Cowboy. What came as perhaps the biggest shocker was Unda's support and awarding of the movie Teorema which was directed and released by the 'communist and gay' movie director -- Pier Paolo Passolini (Convents and Beeck, 2009).

There is a complete record of all the meetings, study days, congresses and the central administrative bodies as well. Both the organizations had different branches in different continents along with having a well organized central structure. The differences and similarities that all the different branches of both Unda and OCIC had in different continents is also mentioned in the archives[footnoteRef:14]. [14: In 1967, Unda held a conference for Asia on radio and television in Cotabato City. Reports from Ceylon, Hong Kong, India, Japan, New Guinea, Thailand, Micronesia (Caroline islands), Vietnam and the Philippines were presented. They form a rich documentation on these media in this region, and they also give a context of the letters found in the Unda archives.]

As Unda and OCIC tried, and eventually succeeded, to pay great importance to the fact about developing countries which have Catholic missions; the mass media played a very important role in this. Therefore, there is a huge record available on the meetings and the discussions between the general secretariats and their national members since this contact between them helped the researcher to create, in many countries, an image of the media. Information about television, radio and Catholic films in 140 countries is also available in the documents, even in countries such as Australia, Luxemburg, Lebanon, Macao, Rwanda, Madagascar, Cuba, the Marshall Islands and the Fiji islands (Convents and Beeck, 2009).

Media offices were made in the bishop's conferences in all the countries by the Vatican 2 in early 1960s; bishops were responsible for the meeting of the media in Rome at Pontifical council for social communications. Unda and OCIC were present at those meetings as the consultants (they have consultant statute at the Council of Europe, UN and UNESCO as well). Information about all these meetings and gatherings is also present in the documents. The project of evaluating the numerous audiovisual ventures of Propaganda designed for the southern hemisphere was also taken care of by them. Information about all these project evaluations also gives an idea about the broadcasting in India, meetings, production of educational, training sessions, local Catholic television and so on. This also means that all or most of the radio and other audiovisual shows that were done in history in the countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America were recorded and properly documented by them[footnoteRef:15]. [15: In Latin America, OCIC and Unda with WACC published books such as Jose ' Mart? ' nez Terrero, Comunicacio ' n grupal liberadora (Florida; Buenos Aires, 1986) or Cees Hamelink, Hacia una autonom? ' a cultural en las comunicaciones mundiales (Florida; Buenos Aires, 1985).]

As there is a huge and uninterrupted record of the radio and other audiovisual shows that went on air in the past, one can get a very clear idea about the mentality of the Catholics and what they were trying to portray through all the images and audio programs. OCIC and Unda also tried to train an average Catholic to make him able to tell others about reviewing films (Convents and Beeck, 2009).

In the beginning they were able to differentiate the good movies from the bad ones very easily. But later on under the influence of the non-western world and international film festivals the films that promoted human rights, spirituality and giving voice to the voiceless started getting all the promotions. The archives have all the information which provides one with a very clear look at the films that were made for the Catholic families. These productions were designed with the Catholic point-of-views but they were also watched for the entertainment purposes as well, all these films and radio shows actually enabled the researcher to get a better idea of the Catholic values. There have been a lot of developments in the mass media especially during the 1980s and 1990s such as the DVDs, internet etc. Catholic people as well as the rest of the world has watched and appreciated these new technologies greatly. Documents regarding the missionary in Rome (which is a branch of the OCIC) are also available in the archives[footnoteRef:16]. [16: OCIC missionary service visited regularly the NAB shows in Los Angles: http:/ / www.nab.org]

In the archives of the Unda and the OCIC there is also a lot of information available on the innovations in the mass media that was brought by the internet, radio and satellite channels, through all this information the researcher can also find out about the development of film as a medium therefore, discovering another history. Unda archives also shed some light on the evolution of TV ownership and TV world. Furthermore, the information on the role played by these two major media organizations in spreading the radio, film and television in the developing countries is also recorded in the archives.

Thirteen Million Distributions Today

According to the Catholic Press Association statistics, today there are a total of 24 major newsletters distributed by the Catholic Church today in the U.S. alone. This is further complemented by the distribution of 143 diocesan newspapers as well as four major national Catholic newspapers. Some of these publications are in Spanish as well. The total circulations are around 13,000,000. Mostly the diocesan newspapers get their news from the Catholic News Service. This is basically an international wire service which is headquartered in Washington, D.C and is owned by the U.S. bishops' conference. However, having said all that, since it is essentially a news organization it does get a certain degree of independence. Currently a total of sixty American publishers work for or are a part of the Catholic Book Publishers Association. Catholic communication network goes way beyond the new papers as they have Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), 160 Catholic radio stations and huge assortment diocesan television efforts. Another important communication force that they have is the internet on which they have approximately 2,000 Catholic blogs. There are also over 23,000 self-recognized Catholic websites currently functioning (Erlandson, 2010).