Parish journalists told to report "only the truth"

CEBU – Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal told parish journalists to be responsible in the new job tasked to them, to report only the truth and in the spirit of volunteerism, help the Church speed up the dissemination of the Gospel of the Lord to their respective community or parish.

Yesterday, the first batch of parish journalists graduated from Parish Journalism Program of the Archdiocese of Cebu Commission on Social Communications.

The volunteers came from different parishes in the diocese and underwent trainings and workshops on basic journalism for two months in the University of San Jose-Recoletos College of Arts and Sciences under the supervision of Dean Teodie Dumam-ag.

They were taught on how to write the news, radio and television broadcasting scripts, how to gather the news and how to prioritize news stories, among others.

Faculty members of USJR-CAS Department and some senior Mass Communication and English Major students served as their instructors.

After completing the modules in the series of sessions, they also ventured to the mainstream media and took a 50-hour internship in the diocese’ media partners which are the DYRF, Catholic Community Television Network (CCTN Channel 47), and the Lungsoranon, the official publication of the Archdiocese of Cebu.

Vidal said that he expects these parish journalists to report what is happening in their parishes so the good works of the Lord in their respective parishes will be recorded. Vidal added that they should only report for truth and not gossip.

Commission on Social Communications chairman Rev. Fr. Trinidad Silva hopes that from this generation of parish journalists, evangelization of the good news shall be strengthened that it may reach even the remotest community.

“We want that the good news not only be heard in churches but can also be read and heard in the different media,” Sylva said.

Sylva said they also expect each parish to come up with their own newsletter where the updates and activities of their parish shall be published to be made available to the parishioners.

Some parishes have already started establishing their own newsletter in fact like the Nuestra Señora de Regla Parish in Lapu-Lapu City which launched the “Linganay” last November 16. – Jessica Ann R. Pareja/BRP (THE FREEMAN)