The workshop is offered every semester, but is limited to 12 students so that Noronha has "time to offer one-on-one personalized feedback to each of my students because of course that's the way that they grow in these skills." Ashley's husband John, a professor of theology and former engineer, offers additional classroom assistance in both apologetics and technology.
Deacon Bernabe believes that "Media Training for Priests" is a successful program in large part due to Noronha's personal dedication. He described her as "a woman who is deeply in love with the Church and incredibly informed."
"She's willing to walk us through various steps through it, but also to help us on an individual basis. I remember there were times when I had a question or something like that outside of class – sent her an email: within hours she had already emailed me back," he continued.
"The opportunities that she has to engage in our lives and to see her around – she really wants to see us succeed, to see the Church succeed in her mission which is to bring about the salvation of souls, and so if you have somebody who is engaged in that – she's proficient, she's professional, and just loves Jesus so much – I can't conceive of any better combination," Deacon Bernabe said.
Noronha has worked with the North American College since 2010, but she has also offered workshops on three different continents for people from lay organizations, seminaries, and religious organizations.
"I've been thrilled by the positive response that I've received to it," she said.
Her desire to continue such work is fueled by her observation that there are "so many priests, so many religious, who through the media have the opportunity to reach people that they would never otherwise see in the pews on Sunday."
Moreover, the skills taught in her course "are not only specialty skills: these are skills that they can use for homilies, for any public speaking engagement, also for one-on-one communication."
Deacon Bernabe felt this lesson quite keenly: "It's very important that you craft and form your words in such a way that people are able to hang on to them, and be able to take them to heart; and to be able to find the ways in which the gospel encounters one's life and to be able to put 'feet on the gospel' so to speak, and so if I'm not able to do that in a homily, I'm not going to be able to do it in an interview, either."
Neither Deacon Bernabe nor seminarian Niemczak had ever done any social communications work before, but both now feel much better prepared, as Nimenczak put it, to see an encounter with the media as "an opportunity rather than a challenge."
Noronha noted that her hope for the future is "to have a group of trained media-savvy priests, seminarians, religious throughout the world who are able to confidently engage with the media and to spread the message of Christ and the Church to the ends of the earth."
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(More information can be found at http://www.mediatrainingforpriests.com/.)