#BishopsMediaWorkshop (second part)


I must confess that by Wednesday early afternoon I was wondering how the team leading the media workshop for the bishops could keep up such wonderful spirit. Up to that moment none of us had fallen asleep not even for a minute! They had kept us fully awake and active.

On top of that, Wednesday morning had been amazing for all of us as we spent those hours with the teenagers who introduced most of us to social media. Could anything match that?

Bishop Frank de Gouveia
The afternoon session was called: Responding to pressure from the press and meeting media expectations and was led by Sèan-Patrick Lovett (Director of Vatican Radio's English Programme). He invited us to remember times when we were called to meet the media regarding a particular crisis. 

In any case... he had prepared "his own". We were all called to get closer to a TV screen where we would watch "the latest news" (prepared by him with a local team) regarding a financial crisis in a diocese. We were then divided in three groups and asked how we would respond to it.

Sèan tried his best to make us feel "it was real". Few minutes' later he came with an update putting more pressure on each one of the groups to get ready to respond. A press statement had to be prepared and it would be said in front of a camera (photo above).

"Press conference"
When we thought it was over he announced that it would be followed by a press conference. Each group had to get ready for it, deciding who would participate and how it would be handled. 

As it had to be "real" ... real journalists came into the room: two men and two women from different media houses. Three press conferences were done and the journalists dealt with each group in a different way. It couldn't have been better. We were all deeply grateful to them for coming. 

Thursday morning we reflected on the experience of the day before. The full exercise had been recorded and each one of the journalists was kind enough to record a feedback of it.

Sisters, priests and bishops who attended the workshop