NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      GUADALAJARA, 16 (NE) Yesterday, during the second day of the International Congress of Catholic Communicators, Archbishop John Foley, President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, spoke during his conference about the "Catholic thought in communications." In his words, Archbishop Foley highlighted that "the social media can be extraordinary educators of the Civilization of Love," affirming also that Catholics are called to achieve that the media contribute to the historical reconciliation and recovery of the own cultural identity of people. "The Church promotes that the media should be each time more human, more attentive to the human person," he stated, affirming that "they should be nurtured of a rigorous ethic, which comes from the ethics of the Christian culture."

      Yesterday's event had also different "panels", the first of which was in charge of Father Pedro Freites, Director of Vatican Radio, Miguel Castellví, of the Vatican Information Service (VIS), and Fernando Lorenzo, Director of the Mexican edition of the L´Osservatore Romano. They spoke about the informative organisms of the Holy See. Father Freites pointed out during his intervention the importance of promoting a Catholic culture through the radio. On the other hand, Castellví underlined that the main objective of the VIS was the instantaneous and electronic transmission of news related to the Vatican, looking forward to inform the public and clarify doubts.

      The day concluded with a "panel" about the new evangelization through Internet, with the participation of Alejandro Bermúdez, Director of ACI Prensa (ACI Press), Ricardo Cruz, of Church Forum, as well as Eduardo Regal, Director of VE Multimedios who explained the different initiatives of VE Multimedios in the world of informatics, such as the Christian Electronic Library ("Biblioteca Electrónica Cristiana - www.multimedios.org), as well as the numerous computer programs this company has developed.