When Worlds Collide, Media Edition

Your narrator's invite probably got lost in the mail -- feel free to howl -- but as previously noted, this week's seeing a top-shelf Vatican Congress on the Catholic press, organized by the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.

On Thursday morning, the gathering -- its participants drawn from 83 countries -- will have a private audience with B16 (and a PopeTalk for all of us to pore over)... in the meanwhile, though, the multilingual papers being presented at the four-day conference are being posted in real time. Among these, given the medium, especially worth noting is today's talk on the ad intra blogosphere by a dear friend of these pages, Anna Arco of the UK's Catholic Herald.

One can only wonder which invocation of Arco's racked up more boos in the Aula: Williamson or... well, just read it.

In the meanwhile, your Quote of the Day comes from the organizer of this week's gathering -- the Communications Council's#2, Msgr Paul Tighe.

Before an upcoming visit to Australia where he'll (curiously) address a PR convention, one Oz outlet dug up a notable verdict the Dublin-born cleric delivered on the link between communication and communion in ecclesial life....

Remember these words now:

"We recognize that a church that does not communicate ceases to be a church."

By said yardstick -- that is, the Holy See's -- one can't help but conclude that considerable swaths of Catholicism have accordingly, er...

Complete the sentence. And cue B16:



PHOTO: Reuters

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