Provincial Convention 2007: Communications Oral Report

Submitted by: Sandra Stajduhar

Madame President, Reverend Fathers and League members

Communication – what is it? Cave paintings, smoke signals, carrier pigeons; telegraph, telephone, television; e-mail, text message, chat room, blog. Communication has changed and grown, but still remains the exchange of thoughts, ideas, information and feelings by a system of signs, sounds or behaviour. It is used in order to accomplish tasks and achieve goals, in our personal and business lives.

In the past year, we have two major examples of communication being used to create change in our country.

Telus: we heard or read that Telus was offering a new service to its mobility customers. They were able to download pornography to their cell phones, and take it with them wherever they went. So we phoned and we wrote and we prayed. And Telus listened, and withdrew the service, and I hope that we all acknowledged and thanked them for this. We must continue to monitor Telus and other service providers.

Bill C-22: to raise the age of protection to 16. This bill passed third reading in the House of Commons on May 4th, and will now go before the Senate for final consideration and hopefully passage before summer. This is a rewarding conclusion to many years of hard work by child protection groups, police officers, politicians and concerned citizens.

To jump start my mind in preparing this report, I typed “communications” in my search engine and received 297 million results in .17 seconds. This is just one example of the power of the internet. We can access sites around the world and we can communicate with each other in seconds. This amazing information highway also brings us the responsibility to use it wisely, and to me this is a three fold responsibility:We must monitor its content and its use, especially by children – there are means in place and it is up to us to educate ourselves and our children on the safety and good content issues;

We must not let it replace actual contact with “real” people;

And, we must USE it. The information is there – sites from our Bishops, from Rome, from WUCWO, C.A.S.E., and from our own National CWL. We can learn so much and be called to action in so many ways. Although some members would have to be dragged, kicking and screaming, to a computer, each council should have at least one person who is willing and able to be the internet/e-mail contact, and this person needs to communicate with her council members.

The internet is not the only media for communications, and our mandate to evaluate and promote good content could also include “provide good content”. In the BC Catholic, May 14th, veteran CBC television journalist Brian Stewart is quoted: “The success of churches and faith-based organizations in providing disaster relief and fighting world poverty is one of “the greatest overlooked stories of our time”. Why is this story overlooked?

In September 2006, Archbishop John Foley, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, addressed new bishops in Media: Well Worth the Church’s Effort. Although he was addressing bishops, his comments also apply to our CWL councils.

Quote: “Basically, the attitude in public relations on the diocesan or even the parish level should be: Never overlook an opportunity to proclaim Christ’s message through activities in which the general public may be interested.”

There are many “good news” stories waiting to be told – and when the five “w’s” – (the who, what, when, where and why) – are covered, an explanation can be added, providing evangelization, education or promotion of the League. Did you have a fundraiser for Matercare? Did you have a speaker on autism? Did you celebrate the feast day of Our Lady of Good Counsel or sponsor a day of reflection? Tell your community. Even if all of a submitted article, or any of it, is not printed – someone read it. When you are aware of good, informative articles, comment on them and share them.

World Communications Day was celebrated this year on May 20th. The theme was “Children and the Media: a Challenge for Education.” Parents, teachers, and the ecclesiastic community are called to work together to educate children and young people to be selective and to develop a critical attitude. The media too must make its contribution to this educational task, promoting the dignity of the human person, marriage and the family, and the accomplishments and aims of civilization. May we all be guided to use the media wisely to communicate God’s great love to the world.

Respectfully submitted,

Sandra S……..