On a mission together

From Kathryn Tardieu, General Manager
Email: ktardieu.camsel@rcpos.org
Twitter:@KathTard

I think often of Jesus, standing in front His disciples in the moments before His Ascension. After three years of personally ministering to those He encountered: renewing them, healing them, spreading the gospel joy, after all the incredible drama of the Resurrection victory, He was now physically leaving. What an intense moment this must have been.

He had instructed His disciples earlier to “…go and make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:18). All nations! What a daunting task especially when you consider the limitations to travel and communication at the time!

I imagine sometimes that I am Jesus at that moment, about to ascend from earth and I get butterflies in my stomach at the thought of leaving this mammoth mission to these simple men. The human side of me wonders, would they be able to communicate all that happened and inspire faith that would spread to all nations?

We at CAMSEL, the communications arm of the Archdiocese and publishers of the Catholic News, are part of the communications mission left behind by Jesus, and for 127 years the Catholic News has been an integral part of the building up of our local and Caribbean Catholic community in its mission. What a wonderful legacy!

It is so important to pay tribute to the editors, writers and contributors who have brought the paper through history to this point. I am new to the team at CAMSEL, only four months in, and I am honoured to be part of such an important ministry built on solid foundations and committed to its mission.

Yet, as we are perched on this moment in history, the Catholic News is now at a turning point. The economic challenges facing print media are daunting, but the additional challenges as Catholic communicators are even greater.

Our job is to transmit the faith amid the noise of the secular media, amid the turmoil of the Church scandals, beyond the walls of the dwindling parish communities and across the generational divide that has left many youths uninspired and alienated. The mission Jesus left the disciples is as urgent as it was 2,000 years ago. 

You, our Catholic faithful, are also part of this communications mission, transmitting and inspiring faith to those around us, to the next generations and by extension, to the nations. The task is indeed daunting. But we can take courage because we know that the Ascension story did not end there!

Before Jesus ascended on that day, He knew that His Holy Spirit would come and fill His disciples, providing all they needed to accomplish their mission, with a serious dose of passion too! Two thousand plus years later we are witnesses to what seemed impossible, Christian disciples in nations all over the planet!

Our vision at CAMSEL is to reach beyond the parish walls, to meet our Catholic community wherever you are, through all channels necessary. Just as the disciples had to leave what they knew behind and travel to foreign lands to spread the gospel, so too do we have to leave what has become so familiar about Catholic News and forge new ways to reach out, and new ways to tell the story of the gospel that has touched our hearts.

As partners in this communications mission we are asking you to help us reshape the Catholic News.  Please give us your feedback by taking our survey.  If you would like you can also join one of our focus groups.

We know that the spirit of the Risen Lord moving through all of our hearts in this special Easter Season will give us all we need to continue together on the mission the disciples had begun. Happy Easter!

To take the survey visit: www.facebook.com/rcpos

Or visit our website: www.catholictt.org