Vatican City, Sep 17, 2012 / 10:49 am
A week-long seminar in Rome aimed at helping journalists better understand the Catholic Church is being called a success by organizers.
"I think that some of the prejudices that some journalists may have about the Church fall away when they see things directly and meet the people who are directly in charge of many different aspects of the Church," course coordinator Professor Daniel Arasa told CNA.
Entitled "The Church up Close," the course concluded on Sunday, Sept. 16. During the previous week a group of 28 journalists from across the globe took part in a series of seminars, personal meetings and on-site visits throughout the Eternal City.
The goal of the course, according to its creators, is to give journalists "an array of tools to strengthen their coverage" of the Church, including "a basic sense of the lay of the land at the Vatican" and "a serious, in-depth analysis of specific hot-button issues confronting today's Church."