Catholic Media Convention underway in Pittsburgh

Steven Huber

June 22, 2011
The Catholic Media Convention begins today in Pittsburgh, PA.  This Convention brings together members of the Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada, Catholic Academy for Communication Arts Professionals and the Association of Roman Catholic Communicators of Canada , as well as Catholic communications/public relations directors - for the purpose of spiritual, economic and professional development.[singlepic id=15 w=320 h=240 float=right]
Why have such a convention?  In an age where social and digital media are becoming ever more popular in our society, it is important to have a strong group of Catholic Media Professionals dedicated to spreading the Gospel Message.  Social communications is an ever-evolving profession and field, so coming together enables us to brainstorm new ideas as to how we can better spread the Gospel message to the World, especially as more and more people turn to various forms of information technologies. It also enables us to follow the call of Pope Benedict XVI to “make good use of our presence in the digital world,” as he instructs us to do in his recent message for the 45th World Day of Communications.
There are many workshops, meetings, and speaker presentations that one can attend at this event.  For example, today’s schedule includes such sessions as “Leadership for the 21st Century,” “Finding your Twitter Voice: Best practices for making social communications work,” and “Communications: Doing More with Less.”  There is also a session on “Pius XII, the Church and the Holocaust,” presented by Ronald Rychlak. The General Session for today is titled “Catholic Media and its parallels/distinctions from mainstream media,” which will be presented by Amy Mitchell, from the Pew Research Institute.
Each day of the Convention is concluded with Mass, followed by a reception.  Tonight’s reception will be a welcome reception for all the delegates.
Be sure to stay tuned to the Salt + Light Blog, Facebook Page, and Twitter feed for updates on the Catholic Media Convention!