REVIEW OF THE REPORTING LINKED TO THE PAPAL VISIT
Showing posts with label Catholic Voices. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Catholic Voices. Show all posts
Friday, 1 October 2010
Monitor takes a holiday
Monday, 27 September 2010
CV debates Protestant Truth Society
CV Peter Williams debated Duncan Boyd of the Protestant Truth Society on Revelation TV on 9 September. Here is the clip -- on the subject: "We believe the Papal Visit will be good for this country".
Friday, 24 September 2010
Valero on Catholic Voices
CV coordinator Jack Valero has been interviewed by the Rome-based Catholic news service ZENIT.
[snip]I don't believe in [the] "anti-Catholicism" of the media. As I said, there is much religious ignorance and much indifference.
On the other hand, the media is interested in dramas and controversies, and not in happy stories: this is how they function. That is why the majority of religious news that appears has a negative context -- sexual or financial scandals, hypocrisy, etc.
In Catholic Voices, we have studied how to do a "re-framing" of news to speak of the subject in positive terms and hence communicate better the message of the Catholic Church, but without evading the question.
Thus, for example, with news about the abuse of minors, one must accept -- as the Pope does -- the culpability of not having dealt with the issue well in the past, but to speak also of the norms that the Church has here for the protection of minors, which are the best of any institution in Great Britain -- something that is recognized also by the government.
[W]hat we have learned in Catholic Voices is that it is the laity that can communicate the Catholic message better in the media. The laity are the ones who live and work together with all the rest, the ones who must pay the mortgage and take care of the sick baby at night. When they say things on television or radio, they connect easily with the public, and have the proper vocabulary to explain things well.
I think that in the future, the Church can make its message reach farther if training courses are established for the laity who have that facility to communicate. It could be said that we must discover in the Church the vocation of communicator.
Wednesday, 22 September 2010
Hear the CVs
Following on from the earlier post on which CVs did what during the papal visit, here is a sample of the interviews to listen to -- mostly from the first two days.
'Pope charms, challenges UK' -- Ivereigh in OSV
CVs on air during the papal visit
The Catholic Voices team have been involved in well over 100 interviews, debates, broadcasts and articles in the weeks running up to and during the papal visit. Much of these were in the month before the trip began, facing down attacks from Protest the Pope and other critics. But this is what the CVs did during the four-day visit itself.
THURSDAY 16
Fiona O’Reilly went out live from Scotland at 7.30am on BBC 1 Breakfast News, together with Magnus Linklater; she was on a pre-rec which went out on Premier Radio; and that afternoon was live on Sky News coverage from Bellahouston Park. Austen Ivereigh was on a BBC R4 ‘Today’ programme pre-rec iv about the Pope’s agenda at 0810. Jack Valero was on a BBC Three Counties Radio debate with Peter Tatchell and in the evening at 8pm debated celibacy against John Deery on BBC World Service. He was also on RTE News, with Mark Dowd. Christopher Morgan was on a BBC World Service pre-rec which went out 1am and again at 5pm, and in the evening on Al-Jazeera and again on BBC World Service (Arabic service). Jim Carr appeared on BBC Radio Scotland’s ‘Call Kaye’ between 0930 and 1000. Laura Crowley was on BBC R4 ‘World at One’ with Martha Kearney. Madeleine Teahan appeared on Premier Radio’s ‘inspirational Breakfast’ between 0745 and 0845, and that evening on BBC London radio between 1815 and 1830. She also wrote an article, ‘Give the Pope a chance’, on the Channel 4 News website. Marie Jones appeared in an article in Famille Chretienne, and in a BBC TV pre-record which went on that day. She was also interviewed live on Radio Notre Dame, and on Vatican Radio (in French) at midday; she also went out (again in French) on French national TV at 1915. Neil D’Aguiar was on BBC World Service Radio at 5pm, debating on significance of religion today, with the president of the European Humanist Federation. Patrick Cusworth discussed clerical sex abuse on TalkSport Radio with Ian Collins. Fr Paul Keane was the studio guest between 7 and 9am on BBC Essex Radio, and in the evening appeared on BBC World TV discussing the papal visit with Tina Beattie. William Johnstone appeared on BBC Good Morning Wales commenting on Cardinal Kasper’s remarks, and joined a BBC Radio Wales phone-in debating with Terry Sanderson. He also tells the story of his conversion from Anglicanism on Agence France Presse (APF) TV. Ella Leonard was on BBC Radio Cornwall.
FRIDAY 17
Fr Paul Keane from Twickenham did a number of interviews and commentaries for BBC World Service Radio. At 6pm he gave a live interview for BBC London Radio following the Westminster Hall address. Austen Ivereigh and Jack Valero were interviewed on BBC Radio Five Live from Twickenham and both gave interviews (in Spanish) to a Spanish-language cable channel for the Americas and (Valero only) NTN24. Austen also gave an interview from Twickenham to BBC Radio 4, which went out on the PM programme, and was interviewed by the Italian television RAI for a future programme on the papal visit. He also wrote an article which appeared in The Independent, and was interviewed by the Catholic News Service and the National Catholic Reporter about Catholic Voices. Edward Rennie was on BBC TV News at 0940. Marie Jones was interviewed by BBC Radio Surrey Breakfast at 0720. Madeleine Teahan appeared on Premier Radio’s ‘Inspirational Breakfast’, and that evening debated with Sr Myra Poole on BBC London TV News. Laura Crowley was on BBC London TV News at 1.30pm discussing Twickenham and secularism. Ella Leonard was on Premier Radio discussing Catholic schools, and live on BBC Radio Belfast qt 6pm. Around 3.30pm Laura was interviewed alongside Poppy McDonald by Anita McVeigh on BBC News24. Jim Carr appeared on BBC Radio Coventry ‘Annie Othen’ show between 0910 and 0930. Fiona O’Reilly was on BBC London TV News at 1830 debating with Michael Walsh. Christopher Morgan was part of the panel for a phone-in BBC World Service ‘Have Your Say’ TV edition with Ross Atkins; and that evening at 6pm appeared on BBC WS ‘Have Your Say’ radio phone-in discussion of the Pope’s remarks with Terry Sanderson and Ruth Gledhill.
SATURDAY 18
Fiona O’Reilly was interviewed on Sky News ‘Sunrise’ programme at 0710 on the key messages from the Pope the day before. That evening after 1800, together with Patrick Cusworth, she commentated on the Pope’s journey to Hyde Park for BBC News24. Edward Rennie after 3.30pm was interviewed by LBC. Madeleine Teahan was on Sky News Live between 1530 and 1600. Marie Jones was interviewed by German TV from Hyde Park. Fr Paul Keane went on BBC World Service Radio to talk of the Pope’s apology on sex abuse. William Johnstone appeared on Premier Radio’s ‘Unbelievable’ programme, debating with Duncan Boyd of the Protestant Truth Society, and on its ‘Premier News Tonight’ programme, discussing ‘What Catholics believe’.
SUNDAY 19
From Cofton Park, Jack Valero appeared at 8am on various BBC local radios on the significance of Newman’s beatification; he gave running commentary on the Mass for BBC West Midlands Radio; and at 3pm gave an interview in Spanish to Chilean TV. Madeleine Teahan was on Sky News Live Breakfast at 7am. Fr Paul Keane was on BBC World Service Radio, discussing Newman. Peter Williams appeared on Al-Jazeera TV that night, debating with Keith Porteous Wood. Jim Carr was on Premier Radio’s ‘Worship at Home’ slot. Christopher Morgan was on BBC World Service on ‘World Today’ ay 0805 and again on the 1305 News. Austen Ivereigh was interviewed for a Guardian podcast wrapping up the visit. Patrick Cusworth discussed sex abuse on BBC Radio Five Live at 1030pm.
La Razon on CV
Writing in the Spanish daily La Razon, Celia Maza comments (Monitor's translation):
"Catholic Voices, a group of Catholics aged between 19 and 44, was created as a volunteer body in anticipation of the papal visit in order to present the Catholic perspective in an attractive way to the media. They are not the spokespeople of the Bishops' Conference, but their exceptional work and closeness to the press has earned them the bishops' blessing."
CV reaches the US Catholic media
It's one of their rolling "Crossplayer" video news service items embedded in Catholic diocesan sites across the US -- and as far as Australia. Access it by clicking on the video roll here. Or here. Or here.
'I can't imagine marriage without monogamy'
Tuesday, 21 September 2010
Catholic Voices in BBC documentary on Pope
Mark Dowd, presenter of the sympathetic "Trials of a Pope" screened on BBC2 on the eve of the papal visit, included four minutes on Catholic Voices, when he came to film at one of the briefing sessions. Interviews with two "young Catholic feminist" members of CV, Madeleine Teahan and Bonnie Lander.
Bonnie appears tonight on Channel 4's thought.tv at 7.55pm.
Bonnie appears tonight on Channel 4's thought.tv at 7.55pm.
Anna Arco: CV as example of 'empowered laity'
Monday, 20 September 2010
Un comando de oradores para defender la Iglesia
That's the headline over a profile of Catholic Voices in La Nacion, Argentina's establishment daily, following an interview with CV coordinator Jack Valero.
Sunday, 19 September 2010
National Catholic Reporter on Catholic Voices
Friday, 17 September 2010
CNS on Catholic Voices
During Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Great Britain, it was difficult to turn on the television without seeing a youngish, articulate lay Catholic defending church teaching.
Although members of the pool of 21 speakers have studied the church's position on hot-button issues and have been trained in the art of keeping a cool head under the fire of a revved-up interviewer, the church defenders are all volunteers.
The men and women -- including a lawyer, teachers, a full-time mom and one priest -- are the frontline of an organization called "Catholic Voices," which was founded in February.
With a budget of about $78,000, the group's three coordinators recruited and trained the 21 speakers, bringing in experts to speak about church teaching on topics ranging from homosexuality to the ordination of women and hiring a studio and professional television interviewers so the speakers could hone their skills.
Poppy MacDonald, a 24-year-old commodities buyer for an aerospace company, said the training was "massively helpful."
As part of her tryout for the team, she was given a test question about Catholic teaching on AIDS and condoms and, after reading and preparing, she said, "I tried to say as much as possible. But then in the training, they help you see that you need to focus on the three things you want to get across" rather than racing the clock to say as much as possible about a subject.
While some have referred to Catholic Voices as "Catholic spin doctors," MacDonald said, "We're not trying to put any spin on what the church teaches."
"We don't go on the air preaching chapter and verse from the catechism or the Bible, but we try to challenge or correct misunderstandings about church teaching," she said.
The training, she said, was "a wonderful opportunity to learn how to speak about your faith in a way that's accessible."
Austen Ivereigh, one of the founders and coordinators of the group, said the 21 speakers would give similar answers to questions about the key controversial issues since they all attended the same briefings, "but they haven't been programmed, so the responses depend on them first of all."
Catholic Voices, which does not speak for the church officially, chose as team members only involved Catholics who accept church teaching, because with the approach of the papal visit "we didn't have time for debates," Ivereigh said.
"The lovely, lovely thing is the generosity" of the speakers who gave up their free time twice a month for training sessions, and who basically lived out of the papal visit press center while Pope Benedict was in Great Britain Sept. 16-19.
The members of Catholic Voices, he said, were "all frustrated by how the church was being presented in the media" before the papal visit.
Ivereigh and MacDonald said much of the bad coverage seemed to be the result of simple ignorance about what the church really teaches on a given subject.
The speakers may face a hostile grilling when they speak, but a key part of the training is to respond calmly with the truth, Ivereigh said.
"When you are up against harsh criticism, the critic usually has a value to defend and often it's a shared value," he said, like when someone attacks the church's teaching on the all-male priesthood, emphasizing the dignity of women. The church teaches that its practice is based on the example of Jesus, who chose only men as his disciples, and does not imply less respect for women.
"Often the confusion arises because the church has put it across badly," Ivereigh said.
Thursday, 16 September 2010
A CV explains why he joined
CV Jim Carr in the Irish Catholic:
So why did I join up? Like many lay Catholics, I have often felt intense exasperation at the negative portrayal of the Church in mainstream media. Some of this is down to genuine misunderstanding by journalists. Some of it - less than some conspiracy theorists would have you believe - is due to wilful misconstrual of the Church's position. But, mainly, the bad publicity is simply down to the Church not doing a very good job of explaining its position. Sometimes, spokesmen (and, regrettably, it is mainly men) use arcane and abstruse language. Sometimes, the tone can seem harsh and hostile. Sometimes, there is, perhaps a reticence and timidity about articulating what, after all, is a really powerful and wonderful message. Catholic Voices, I felt, offered an exciting opportunity to address this situation.
Two things in particular attracted me to the project. The first was its vision of the Church. The Church is not conceived as the clergy or the hierarchy, but as the whole people of God. Of this, the laity form a vital and integral part. But the corollary of this vision is that the laity can't take the easy, lazy route of hurling in the ditch, lamenting the Church's plight, and bashing the bishops. They too, need to take responsibility for getting the message out.
The second attractive aspect of the project was its positive view of the media. Too often, Church communications founder on the misportrayal of journalists as villains and scoundrels. The media are not the enemy. They are not 'out to get us'. Most journalists take seriously their vocation to report honestly and fairly, to facilitate debate, and enable the national conversation.
Catholic Voices on France24 TV
Reuters on Catholic Voices: 'one of the big innovations of this papal tour'
From Tom Heneghan's FaithWorld blog:
Catholic Voices, the speakers’ bureau that’s been putting up sparring partners for the Church’s critics, must already rank as one of the big innovations of this papal tour. Popes are no strangers to protests when they visit foreign countries, but the Vatican and the local Church hierarchy usually ignore the critics or give cautious responses. Under Pope Benedict, Vatican public relations has been so badly organised that both he and his aides have often provided even more fuel for criticism. Given the strong and mostly critical interest the media would show in the pope’s visit, these speakers – journalists, lawyers, students and a few clergy – decided the Church needed a more professional operation if it was to get its message across.
Catholic Voices coordinator Austen Ivereigh a former deputy editor of The Tablet and spokesman for Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, gave me his thoughts about the project and how it’s been doing:
“We thought that our model of a ‘media-friendly, studio-ready, ego-free’ speakers would work well for both the Church and the 24-hours news media, but we’ve been amazed at its success. A big part of the success, we think, is that we making ourselves available to talk about absolutely anything –authoritatively, but in straightforward human language. I think the media have been really impressed that ‘ordinary’ Catholics have been standing up and rebutting these critiques – rather than polemicists or professional talking heads (or indeed bishops). We haven’t replaced those, of course, but have offered another kind of “voice” – deliberately non-expert, but very well briefed – alongside the usual commentators and spokespeople.
“It’s the fruit of six months of intensive briefings on hot topics, and media skills training. It’s been enormously satisfying to see a group of 20-odd ‘ordinary’ Catholics – not leaders of Church organisations, but people with jobs, generally in their 20s and 30s – appear in studios and carry off an effective 3-minute live broadcast interview. I think we’ve presented a much more ‘real’ face of the Church than the media are used to.
“The ferocity of the criticism directed at the Pope and the state nature of the visit – a lot of it deeply irrational, and clumsy in its allegations – has kept us in demand; journalists have been looking for responses that are straightforward and human, and which reflect attitudes in the Catholic community.”
Catholic Voices also runs a Media Monitor blog, tracking the debate in the media and talking back to its critics. There are plenty of links there to video clips showing their appearances on British television or articles in print. One interesting post that shows it’s drawn some blood recounts how a leading critic, the prominent lawyer Sir Geoffrey Robertson, pulled out of a Sky TV interview with Ivereigh and refused to debate him on Al Jazeera. Robertson argued in a new book “The Case of the Pope: Vatican Accountability for Human Rights Abuse” that the Vatican did not deserve a state visit because it was not really a state – despite the fact the Holy See is recognised as a sovereign state in international law, as Ivereigh has been telling anyone ready to listen.
Robert Pigott on Catholic Voices
The Catholic Voices team have been operational for several weeks. Broadcasters have treated them not so much as a kind of "professional vox pops", as a body with an well-articulated, mildly conservative opinion on almost all the central issues under discussion during the papal trip. So is that justified? I think it is - as long as journalists take responsibility for understanding enough of the arguments being made to be sure that Catholic Voices are, as they claim to be, speaking for Catholicism.And he concludes:
The line taken by Catholic Voices tends to mirror very closely that taken by the official Church. In fact at a BBC lunch a week or so ago, the Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols tried to take credit for helping to set up the group. He has certainly given it his approval and support, but unless or until the Church takes ownership of the organisation entirely, we cannot afford to drop our guard.
Wednesday, 15 September 2010
William Oddie on Catholic Voices
The former editor of the Catholic Herald writes about CV here.
I know nothing of the origins of this outfit: I came across it first on Sunday, when as a result of attempting to defend on Radio 5 Live ... the practice of clerical celibacy in the teeth of a BBC poll of British Catholics which purported to show them considerably more against it than for it, I was asked two hours later if I would go immediately to a BBC TV studio to talk about the same thing on the BBC News channel. As this would have meant missing either Mass or Sunday lunch with my family or both I said no.
An hour later, as I preparing to leave the house to go to Church, I turned on the TV to see if they’d got someone else already, and they had: a young woman from Catholic Voices (whose name I missed), personable, well informed, competent, agreeable in manner, persuasive, who kept her calm admirably in the face of aggressive questioning and who won from the interviewer the closing accolade: “Thank you. That was very interesting.” It was a splendid performance, and probably better than anything I would have been able to pull off.
Their website is also indispensable. It tells me for instance (I wish I had known this on Sunday) that the poll on which I had to comment for BBC 5 Live (like a later poll for ITV, also showing a substantial rejection of papal teachings) had ignored a crucial distinction between practising and non-practising Catholics.
Saturday, 11 September 2010
Voci Cattoliche
A report on Catholic Voices in Corriere della Sera, one of Italy's widest-read newspapers.
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