2:00 pm | Field Hospital Workers Needed: How to Foster Dialogue in Catholic Communications Today

Presenter: Fr. Tom Rosica
Time: Friday, June 23 at 2:00 pm
Location: Room 4512

Field Hospital Workers Needed:
How to Foster Dialogue in Catholic Communications Today

This session provides clarity on using blogs, websites and programming to transmit the Good News of the Lord and to foster authentic dialogue.

One of Pope Francis’ favorite images which has certainly been seized by the media is the “field hospital.” When Francis speaks of the church as a “field hospital after a battle” he appeals to Ignatius of Loyola’s understanding of the role of the church in light of God’s gaze upon the world. Field hospitals by their very nature indicate a battleground, a struggle, suffering, confusion, emergency and they foster dialogue and encounter, conversation and meeting, consolation, compassion and the binding of wounds.

But the big battlefield before humanity is also the digital world: one that requires no passport and travel ticket to enter. We have all recognized the seriousness of the spread of hate speech on the internet and how it can be used as a way to catalyze and channel hatred towards ever-changing new, harmful targets against peace in society, the world and the Church. In this aggressive environment, we must find ways to foster listening and benevolence in interpreting what others have to say.
Ordained a priest in the Congregation of St. Basil in 1986, Fr. Thomas Rosica, a native of Rochester, New York, holds advanced degrees in Theology and Sacred Scripture from Regis College in the University of Toronto, the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome and the Ecole Biblique et Archéologique Française de Jerusalem. Fr. Rosica has lectured in Sacred Scripture at Canadian Universities in Toronto, Windsor and London and served as Executive Director of the Newman Centre Catholic Chaplaincy at the University of Toronto from 1994-2000.

In June 1999, he was appointed by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops as the Chief Executive Officer and National Director of the World Youth Day and the Papal Visit of Pope John Paul II, that took place in Toronto during July, 2002. On July 1, 2003, Fr. Rosica became the founding Chief Executive Officer of Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation, Canada’s first national Catholic Television Network. He also served as President of Assumption University in Windsor, Ontario from 2011-2015.

Appointed by Pope Benedict XVI to the Pontifical Council for Social Communications in 2009, Fr. Rosica also served as Media Attaché at four Synods of Bishops at the Vatican in 2008, 2012, 2014 and 2015. In addition to his leadership of Salt and Light Television in Canada, he served as English language attaché to Holy See Press Office from 2013-2016 and continues to relate on a daily basis to several hundred English language journalists and television and radio personnel around the world.

Rev. Thomas Rosica, CSB
Chief Executive Officer
Salt and Light
Catholic Media Foundation