Perhaps no other ministry or service can aid the Church’s mission as the proper and effective use of communications. The quicker this is realised the better.

The recent consultation that brought together the management teams of Catholic media houses in the Archdiocese is therefore of particular importance.

It was fitting that it was the first in a new series of meetings leading up to Synod 2008. A two-day meeting of the Archdiocesan Administrative Board – a body of department heads concerned with pastoral outreach – and a consultation for principals of Catholic schools are also planned for this month.

Communication is an essential component of the various ministries engaged in pastoral outreach, as it is vital for the proclamation of the Good News of Jesus Christ.

The success of the work, whether in Family Life, Youth Ministry, Social Justice, Formation of the Laity or Evangelisation, depends on the effectiveness of the means of communication.

Each ministry rises or falls, succeeds or fails, according to how well it understands communication and the use it makes of the tools of communication.

It is possible for a ministry to eke out an existence without paying serious regard to communication and for business to go on as usual – for a while at least.

But in today’s dynamic communication climate, these ministries will fail to reach their targets and become less and less effective.

The progress of the work of Catholic media houses rests, to some extent, on a greater awareness and appreciation of the critical role that communication has in these ministries of pastoral outreach and, indeed, at every level of Archdiocesan life.

 The activity in parishes feeds our Catholic media; the quality of the output from these media bodies will improve as they are better served by persons in pastoral outreach who are, at least, distinctly aware of the role and power of effective communication.

Recurring themes

But the recent meeting of the “who’s who” in Catholic communication bore testimony to the desire of the media bodies to engage in certain work together, and the need to do so, if the place of Catholic communication is to be advanced in the Archdiocese.

 Like the call for an archdiocesan media resource centre and a greater relationship with the secular media, this drive for a more beneficial restructuring of the media groups is a recurring theme in a number of plans over the years.

But why is this restructuring so important? It is necessary that our media houses have a united voice, that the messages of each medium find resonance in the others. This is already happening to some extent in formal and informal ways, although there may be room for deepening the process.

But working more closely together can also make it possible for the individual media houses – Catholic News, Catholic Communication Studios and Trinity Communications – to reach beyond their own natural boundaries to engage one another in doing new things together. The diversity today in the world of communication technology allows for this.

From the restructuring perspective, the establishment of a media resource centre (a Synod resolution) as a place of research where persons can bring forward new ideas and insights and a venue for communication training and discussion becomes especially important. The centre will send a clear message about the value the Archdiocese places on communication.