In recent times, an increasing number of dioceses, episcopal conferences
and other ecclesial realities have set up their own departments of
communication. There is a growing awareness of their important role
in making known the nature and activity of the Church in diverse cultural
and professional environments.
The experience of communications professionals shows that the effectiveness
of their work depends on many factors, both internal and external.
One of the decisive elements is the organization of the work itself:
competent direction should permit one to make maximum use of often-scarse
resources.
Pluralistic and complex societies present ever new challenges, such
that an office of communication cannot content itself with simply issuing
press releases; neither can its task be limited to the repetition of
antiquated formulas. The new communication arena demands that the communications
office be a fountain of ideas, a laboratory for projects, a centre
for relationships and dialogue, and a purveyor of responses. Obviously,
these demands call for a management team full of initiative and creativity.
The 5th Professional Seminar for Church Communications Offices invites
professionals to reflect on the challenges of running a communications
office: the compatibility between long-term strategies and day-to-day
work; the criteria for determining priority objectives; the methodology
employed in designing communication plans; the management qualities
required of those in charge of the offices.
The Seminar also intends to analyze both the contents of institutional
communication in the ecclesial environment and the means to transmit
them in a clear and positive way.
The School of Church Communications of the Pontifical University of
the Holy Cross provides, in this Seminar, a forum for an eminently
practical professional meeting, directed to those in charge of communicative
activities in ecclesiastical institutions all over the world.
