A message from Rayanne Bennett, Associate Publisher
For decades, many of us have had the experience of trying to enjoy an intriguing documentary on PBS or our favorite music on local public radio only to be thwarted by their never ending fundraising appeals. It is rarely a welcome disruption, but we often recognize that public media needs our support and is well worth whatever we are able to invest in it.
In recent years, the media demands on our fundraising dollars have exploded, with countless public and independent outlets asking for our support. The current media landscape is vastly different than the three main television networks and two daily newspapers that many of us were familiar with in our youth.
It is now hard to know which media outfits are deserving of our financial support. But more importantly, it has also become difficult to know which media we can trust for accuracy, veracity and journalistic integrity.
This is why the annual Catholic Communication Campaign is so important. The campaign calls upon the Catholic community to support special projects and dynamic initiatives that are dependable and worthy. The CCC is the U.S. bishops’ initiative for responding to the national and local communications needs of the Church. Established in 1979, the CCC is supported by a collection taken in parishes usually on World Communications Day (this year May 16 and 17). The collection is unique in that proceeds are split equally between each participating diocese and the national office, which provides grants for domestic and international projects that evangelize through the media.
When we are bombarded with requests for donations, we might be tempted to look past the significance of this collection. Communications is such a non-specific word that can be assigned many different meanings. But in the Diocese of Trenton, the Office of Communications and Media, which benefits from the annual CCC collection, makes it possible to reach the members of our community in a variety of ways – through our websites, social media sites, video production and livestreaming of major liturgies, and our news website and magazine.
Because of the proliferation of such communications breakthroughs as Artificial Intelligence, with all of its benefits and challenges, our Catholic community needs a network of media resources to rely on, to provide the truth when hate and fake news circulates at lightning speed; to be the face of the Gospel.
We are proud to be part of that Catholic communications network. We are honored that you, our readers, trust us to deliver news and information of value, and we hope you will prayerfully consider supporting this year’s collection for the Catholic Communication Campaign.
The Church needs quality Catholic journalism now more than ever. Please consider supporting this work by signing up for a SUBSCRIPTION (click HERE) or making a DONATION to The Monitor (click HERE). Thank you for your support.