By F. M. Britto
Parsahi, Jan 5, 2020: Most passengers in the train are busy browsing through their android mobiles. I appear to be the only outdated person reading a magazine. My conscience is troubled: Am I allowed to read?
These days, people are more occupied with internet than reading any printed word. Definitely internet has better advantages than the printed medium. Faster in communication, internet offers you what you ask at the mere click of a button. Internet has a much wider reach than print media. They are both audio and visual, unlike the print that speaks only to your eyes.
But does it mean the print media is dead and outdated? Print is a long-lasting, cost-effective and aesthetically-pleasing method of communication. Print media is popular because it is one of the easiest ways to reach the targeted customers. Many opt for physical copy, printed books than e-books.
Magazines and books go deeper into a particular topic. Print media do not disappear immediately, but creates a lasting impression. It can be reviewed again and again. Scientific study reveals that the children have a taste for study in the families that cherish a shelf of books. Print will continue to survive, even if the percentage of users goes down.
The Catholic Church used to celebrate Press Month every February since 1950. But we don’t hear much about it these years. Is it because many do not read Catholic publications and books these days? Neither the Catholic Church nor the Catholics seem to take seriously of the press.
The printed word is one of the outstanding achievements of humankind and in India by Christian missionaries. In fact it is the foreign Christian missionaries who first brought the printing machines to India. And they started printing Bibles first in various vernacular languages.
They also used the press for imparting Christian instruction and information, both to the baptized and non-baptized. The first Indian newspaper called Bengal Gazette was established by Christian Missionary James Augusus Hickey from Calcutta on Jan 29, 1780.
Besides communicating faith by printed booklets, the missionaries also promoted the local literature and spread humanism for social change. Salesians launched their first publication way back in 1923 in the North East with the Khasi monthly ‘Ka ling Khristan’ (The Christian Family). It was followed by other publications in the 1930s in Khasi, Garo, Mikir, Hindi, Lotha, Angami, Manipuri, Lalung etc.
By establishing the St. Paul Society in Allahabad in the 1950s, the St Paul Fathers and Brothers spread Christian literature both in English and Hindi. The handing over of the Examiner Press Bookshop in Bombay to the Society of St. Paul in 1951 was another milestone in the growth of the Catholic Press in India. Though the Christian missionaries contributed much to the growth of local literature in the initial stage, no more they top in the list these days.
Appreciably many dioceses in India have since late started their own diocesan newsletters to communicate the diocesan news in the diocese. Some of them have grown over the years into national periodicals like the New Leader, Examiner, the Herald (of Calcutta), Nishkalanka (Ranchi).
All the dioceses should start their diocesan newsletters, monthly, bimonthly or at least quarterly. It should be in the vernacular language where the laity also should be able to read, write and benefit, and not meant merely for priests and nuns.
Besides communicating the diocesan news, they also need to give the universal church news and should be vehicle for imparting and living the faith in their social context. With plenty of visuals and space, they should be attractive to the children, youth and women and not boring treatises on some theological doctrines. The catholic press should disseminate the gospel values to transform the society.
Greg Erlandson, President of the U. S. Catholic Press Associations said, “Only the Catholic Press gives the Catholic leaders a voice with which to be heard by their people – unmuted, uncensored and independent of the preconceptions and prejudices of too many secular media outlets.”
Way back in 1884 the US bishops recommended all household subscribe at least one Catholic periodical of their choice, because they are the means to re-evangelize our people. For the English speaking Catholics, we have the New Leader, Light of Truth (Sathyadeepam), Examiner and the Herald (Calcutta). Readers could choose whatever periodical is relevant to them and to suit their budget. Besides subscribing, they also need to regularly renew their subscriptions and gift others also subscriptions.
If the Catholic press is to be the salt of the earth and light to the world, it needs to have the professional quality. How many of our church publications attract young readers? They lose interest in reading them because they fail to hook them. We need to move on along with the advancement in technology, electronic and social media.
Pope Benedict XVI spoke to journalists in 2010 that the foremost task of the Catholic newspapers is giving “voice to a point of view that reflects Catholic thinking on all ethical and social questions.”
Nowadays there is a lack of interest among our Catholics to learn more about the faith and the students are busy only with their mobiles and laptops. Priests and nuns need to encourage their parishioners, students to subscribe to at least one Catholic magazine which would be relevant to them.
But if many priests and nuns themselves do not read any Catholic periodical or book, but while away their free time only in watching TV serials and WhatsApp messages, how are they going to motivate others to read? Catholic English monthlies like The Teenager (Mumbai), Heights (Bhopal) are very relevant to non-Christian students too.
Weeklies like the Indian Currents were started to give Christian perspective to non-Christians. Church needs to honor lay leaders like Lawrence Coelho running The Secular Citizen, a weekly from Mumbai, and Dr. P. M. Chacko for publishing The Family Magazine (Cochin), which could be benefited by all. Though late Archbishop M. Arockia Samy of Madurai dreamt of starting a Tamil Catholic daily, he couldn’t materialize it. Yet the Tamil Nadu bishops are successfully running a weekly Nam Vazhvu. The influence of the Malayalam daily Deepika has to be lauded.
In running a publication our vision and mission should be clear. In some of our Catholic publications, Jesus and the gospel values are out, though that is the focal point of the Protestant publications. If the editors envisage to have a larger circulation of their publications, their products need to be attractive and worth the subscribers’ money and time. What they write should be readable and they should not write literature to get Noble Prize.
Due to lack of professionalism, many of our Catholic publications are not sought after. Many editors want to please their bishops by printing their large photos and the hierarchy and they have no concern with the ordinary people’s problems. Responding to the changing demands of the consumers the printing industry needs to take steps like the Forbes magazine. They should carry stories of our faith, our people and our life.
Sometimes the diocesan bishop or provincial appoints an editor, who has no experience of print journalism. When his term is over, another disinterested person is brought in – to murder the publication. Many priests and nuns are regularly sent to be trained as teachers, nurses, social workers and in theology. But how many of them are trained to be media persons in this age of media, though the bishops have opened institutions like the Niscort. Media training should form an integral part of religious formation.
Since years the (Tamil Nadu) Kottar diocesan monthly Then Oli is successfully managed by the laity, cooperated by the priests and its bishop. But we cannot find such lay leaders in all dioceses. Even if there are, some bishops do not have the trust in them and some lay leaders are also to be blamed for that. And there is also the problem of financial payment to them. What about the clergy who return from foreign countries with doctorate in media? Many of their ambitions seem to be to adorn their names with Dr. or looking for high ecclesiastical posts in their dioceses or congregations.
Some Catholic schools spend so much money on extravagant school annuals, get-togethers, parties, prizes and buildings. Why not they offer at least one advertisement in a year to any one of the Catholic publications to supplement its cost? Mumbaikers need great applause in the enormous advertisements they give to their Examiner.
Cardinal Oswald Gracias, the archbishop of Bombay, said at the 33rd General body meeting of the CBCI, “Media provides us the best opportunity to be a new way of being the church by going beyond all barriers that divide the society. Encourage more and more Catholic laity to take up media profession so that their deliberations and lives communicate truth, fairness, authenticity, justice, peace and brotherhood in India.”
Will this Press Month improve Catholic readership and publications?
[Fr Francis Maria Britto is the parish priest of the Catholic Church at Parsahi (Bana) in the Champa district of Chhattisgarh. The parish comes under the Raipur archdiocese. He has been contributing articles to various Church publications for decades. He also reports for Matters India. He could be contacted at 9826151328 or francismbritto@gmail.com.]