Media Release
Bangalore, July 10: Keeping in mind the importance of public relations among Church personnel, a two-day program was organized under the patronage of Archbishop Bernand Moras of Bangalore to train Public Relations Officers of the dioceses and institutions on July 9 and 10 at the Regional Pastoral Centre (Kross), Bangalore.
Commodore A R B D’Souza (Retd), a corporate trainer and the PRO of the diocese of Karwar was the resource person. 34 participants from several dioceses and institutions in Bangalore availed the training.
The interactive training program covered topics like facilitators and roadblocks to communication, need for public relations in the Church and Church based organizations, role of a Public Relations Officer, skills she/he needs, dealing with the media, writing press releases and organizing press conferences.
The highlight of the training program was an interactive session with some Christians working in the media (print and electronic) who were requested to share their views on how the Church could improve ties with the media, pitfalls in our relationship with the media and what the media expects from us for better coverage of our services.
Archbishop Bernard Moras, presided over this meeting and in his words highlighted the Church’s need for the media and appreciated the service of the Christians and others in the field. The Archbishop cancelled all other engagements and attentively followed the proceedings.
Those who shared their experiences included Anthony Mary (Sanjevani), Bansy Kalappa (TV 9), Chinnappa D (Mathukathe), Clifford Pereira (TV 9), David B and Merlin Francis (Indian Express), Samuel S G (Freelance Artist), Sudipto Mondal (Hindustan Times), Rita Rini, D Kumar, Kennedy Shantharaj and Pericho Prabhu.
They emphasized that the Church should not shy away from the media; the light must shine before all people and not expect the media to be absolutely honest but allow for shades of grey, knowing that what is not so good news for us is good news for the media; papers and channels have their biases, but not with any rigidity and we can always approach them and must learn the art of presenting acceptable press releases and organize press conferences. They were happy to be Christian representatives in the media.
Fr Faustine Lobo (National Director, Pontifical Missions Organizations) who coordinated the meeting aptly summarized the Church’s relations with those in the media with the simile of the beggar who went begging, unaware that the begging bowl he held out was a golden bowl.
Participants of the training program, expressed, in the evaluation, much satisfaction with the program and suggested more hands on training in relating to the media.