Catholic journalists from across the United States and Canada gathered June 20-22 for this year's Catholic Media Conference in Indianapolis. Ind. The conference offers workshops on topics ranging from multimedia skills to Christians in the Middle East. This year's event also offered a wealth of impressive keynote speakers, who discussed topics of interest to the church as a whole. We live-tweeted many of the talks, but in case you missed our feed, here's a wrap up:
Bishop Christopher Coyne, apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, offered some thoughts on how to be a "good Catholic communicator" during his homily at the opening Mass.
"Every news story, every video, every blog post, every tweet or email or response to comment boxes can become an opportunity to manifest God’ love if we commit ourselves to loving. I will love God and others in the little moments of my work. I will spread the good news through one kind act, one loving response, one at a time, in the name of Christ."
Read the full text, here.
Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., offered the address before dinner on the first night of the convention and on the eve of the bishops' Fortnight for Freedom campaign.
"The worst enemies of religious freedom aren’t “out there” among the legion of critics who hate Christ or the Gospel or the Church, or all three. The worst enemies are in here, with us–all of us, clergy, religious, and lay–when we live our faith with tepidness, routine, and hypocrisy."
Read the full text, here.
Carolyn Woo gave a talk promoting the good work of Catholic Relief Services. Woo urged Catholics to tell the story of CRS and spoke about several current aid projects.
"When a country and the local church work into their own, [CRS] leave[s]. Over and over again we have worked ourselves out of a job."
The full text isn't available, but you can check out our Twitter feed or the Storify page, which aggregates tweets and photos from the event, created by CRS.
Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, offered a lunchtime speech on the second day of the conference.He addressed some of the challenges facing the Catholic press today, both those caused by internal conflict and outside pressures.
"The problems of division, polarization and lack of charity, have a negative effect on the Church’s internal life. These problems are not unique to the Church, and reflect a phenomenon increasingly common across society today. Part of the reason for this state of affairs is that new technologies and the culture of communication arising from them make it easier to isolate oneself and to congregate only with people who 'think like I do'. 'Communio et Progressio' says: 'The Church looks for ways of multiplying and strengthening the bonds of union between her members. For this reason, communication and dialogue among Catholics are indispensable.'"
The final speech of the weekend was given by Carl A. Anderson, supreme knight. His talk was titled, "What Every Catholic Can Do to Transcend Partisanship," and in it he wondered whether Catholics could "find a way to persuade both political parties to come into alignment with the fundamentals of Catholic social teaching."
"As Catholics, we wish we could debate and vote on the full range of Catholic social teaching—including prudential issues that
raise serious moral questions. But to be able to effectively do this, we must first refuse to support candidates who advocate policies that are intrinsically evil. Withholding a vote may at times be the most effective vote."
Read the full text, here.
