Catholic Communication Campaign

Submitted on September 07, 2001

Send to friend This weekend parishes throughout the Archdiocese of St. Louis will take up a special collection for the Catholic Communication Campaign. The annual collection supports important evangelization efforts in the media, both locally and nationally. Earlier this year, Cardinal William Keeler of Baltimore discussed the unique role of the media in modern society and the important need for the Church both to work with the media and to develop and strengthen electronic communications initiatives. "To neglect the mass media is not simply to be deficient in the tools one employs in the service of the Gospel," the Cardinal noted, "it is to risk rendering the Gospel unintelligible to a significant portion of our human family." We are called to do what is possible to make effective use of the tools of modern communications. Our proper use of the means of social communications directly impacts our efforts in the broader work of evangelization. And your support of the Catholic Communication Campaign gives the Church the financial resources to accomplish its mission. On the national level, the Catholic Communication Campaign provides such valuable free services as (800) MASS-TIMES and , which make available times for the celebration of Mass in parishes throughout the United States - a wonderful resource for those who may be traveling. Likewise, a toll-free telephone service - (800) 311-4CCC - offers film reviews with appropriate ratings from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Last year this service received more than 2,200 calls from individuals in the Archdiocese of St. Louis. Locally, the Catholic Communication Campaign funds the continued broadcast of the televised Mass for the homebound on KTVI-TV, Channel 2, reaching more than 10,000 viewers each week. Likewise, a number of Catholic radio and Internet initiatives - including the Archdiocese's award-winning Web site at www.archstl.org that attracted more than 300,000 visitors last year - are supported by the collection, as are a variety of other critical evangelization and communications efforts. Through our communications efforts, our local Church reaches hundreds of thousands of people! It is thanks to the generosity of the people of the Archdiocese of St. Louis that our communications efforts are supported and sustained. Let us not undervalue the importance of effective communication. Your support of the Catholic Communication Campaign is appreciated.