USCCB - (Office of Media Relations) - Renewing the Mind of the Media

Renewing the Mind of the Media

Ideas for Parish Staff, Leaders, and Councils

Promote the Renewing the Mind of the Media Pledge with bulletin and pulpit announcements in advance of the designated weekend, and encourage parishioners to sign the pledge and return it with their regular Sunday offering. The national date for the pledge weekend coincides with the U.S. celebration of World Communications Day—the third weekend in May. Watch for additional information from your bishop regarding the date when your diocese will conduct the pledge.
Include quotes from Renewing the Mind of the Media in your bulletin and use your "Pastor's Corner" article to focus on the statement's message.
Share the Church's teaching on mass communications from the pulpit, in your classrooms, and in community meetings. The Church embraces the means of modern communication, especially when communication is used to "contribute to the pursuit of truth and the speeding up of progress" (Pastoral Instruction on the Means of Social Communication [Communio et Progressio], no. 13). But these means can be used for ill as well as good, and the Church must speak out when they are misused. (Go to Church Documents to read more from Church sources on social communications.)
Around World Communications Day, celebrate a special liturgy or devotional service for those who work in media and communications to pray that their work may be guided by the Holy Spirit to bring messages that are good and truthful and that do not demean. (See Ideas for Liturgists and Homilists) Invite journalists, editors, reporters, cable company owners and operators, television and radio station owners and employees, local advertising agents, and the general public.
In addition to World Communications Day, celebrate the feast days of communications-related patron saints by focusing your homily on those days on the good the media can bring into our lives. (See Ideas for Liturgists and Homilists)
Throughout the year, include special prayers in the General Intercessions at Mass that focus on those who work in media-related fields and for consumers of news and entertainment. (See Ideas for Liturgists and Homilists)
Use your newsletters and bulletins to publicize pertinent information sent to you by your diocesan communications director and media literacy and advocacy organizations. Sign up for occasional e-mail updates from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops at renewing@usccb.org.
Ask an existing organization within your parish (e.g., the Knights of Columbus, the home and school association, or parish Council of Catholic Women) to take responsibility for a local media advocacy effort. Have them, in turn, select leaders and form a group with an interest in the media. Put the group in contact with similar groups from other parishes.

Such a group could coordinate and monitor

An area on your parish website where parents and other interested individuals can post personal reviews about television programs, movies, websites, or video games. This area should become not the parish's complaint center, but rather a place for sharing constructive comments—good and bad—about media parishioners have seen and heard. To be a forum for mutual support among parents, the website must be governed by principles of participation that disallow insulting, abusive, and threatening language or libelous statements. It must be monitored.
In-service days or faculty meetings for teachers on the bishops' statement Renewing the Mind of the Media and how its message and the concept of media literacy can be woven into school and religious education activities. (See Ideas for School, Religious Education, and Youth Programs).
Panel discussions with local media representatives on the role the media should play in a community and how media outlets are living up to their responsibilities toward citizens. Follow up with a second panel composed of representatives from media watch or advocacy groups or a child development specialist who could address the impact of the media on children.
Programming and advertising as well as developments in public policy affecting communications and media, in order to promote greater media literacy. (See Ideas for Establishing a Parish Media Watch Group)