(Recife, Brazil) – Last weekend the city of Recife has welcomed the (vice) provincial representatives of the Commission of Redemptorist Media (COMIRE) for a meeting to define the planning of the first congress of Redemptorist communicators in Brazil. The representatives of COMIRE and the provincial of São Paulo, Fr. José Inácio de Medeiros, attended the meeting, which took place at the Redemptorist house in Madalena.
The main objective of this meeting, as this is the seventh of this commission, was to structure details for the Congress of Communicators that should take place in June 2018 in Aparecida.
The theme of the meeting was in consonance with the theme chosen for the Congregation for the sexennium since the last General Chapter, “Redemptorist communication in a wounded world: evangelizing the new frontiers of the media”.
“We want to celebrate the year 2018 with a discussion on the history of the media in Redemptorist evangelization and how to empower them to help this world wounded by so many miseries,” Father Inacio said in commenting on the theme of the Congress. “We need to update our language and the ways in which we relate to so many and so complex ways of communication that today permeate the life of society,” he added.
Father Evaldo Souza, the coordinator of COMIRE is one of the organizers of the meeting, believes that the Congress should offer practical tools for the daily communication activities of the Redemptorist pastoral fronts throughout the country. “The group has decided to work with great topics, but also to organize thematic workshops that could provide support to communities to create, for example, a WebTV or even improve the reach of social networks”. Combining practical experience and reflection, one of the arguments of defence by Fr Rosivaldo, a confrere from the unit of Bahia, was about the lack of quality in communication by our lay people. “In this year of the laity, we dream of bringing the lay people who work in our pastoral care to the Congress and strengthen in them the love for communication and the correct use of the tools”.
The journalist Simone Oliveira, a professional from the Globo di Radio group and press officer of the Santuario di Morro da Conceição, also attended the meeting. He shared his experience in helping to lead religious affairs in the secular media and how fragile is journalists’ knowledge on religious matters. “We must understand that people are no longer educated in religious language or environments and therefore when we talk about religion in the media, we must use a simple and very explanatory language”, said the journalist. He also added that “not even the most obvious things of faith are not clear for ordinary people.”
In the end, the group concelebrated the Eucharist in the church of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, closing another meeting with gratitude.
Father Evaldo César de Souza, C.SS.R
