Cardinal to speak on media

By Ryan Martin

Published Jan. 29, 2008

Cardinal John Foley, the English-translation voice of the Roman Catholic Church’s Christmas Eve Midnight Mass in Vatican City, will speak at MU this week.

The lecture is part of the St. Thomas More Newman Center’s Annual Speaker Series, and it will focus on the role of the media and how religion is portrayed, Newman Center Deacon Frank Ruggiero said.

Foley, who has a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University in 1966, will be giving a lecture entitled, “Is religion still good news?” at 7 p.m. on Friday.

Foley managed communication efforts for the Roman Catholic Church from 1984 to 2007, helping to shape perspectives of media usage and how the church reacted to external events, said Debra Mason, director of the Center on Religion and the Professions.

“Other than governments, few entities are bigger or have a bigger global reach than the Roman Catholic Church,” Mason said.

Before 1984, he was editor of the Catholic Standard and Times for 14 years and co-produced and co-hosted the Philadelphia Catholic Hour on a local radio station, according to the Vatican Web site.

Foley was also vice president of the Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada. He served as a news secretary for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and was the press liaison for Pope John Paul II’s visits to Ireland and the United States in 1979, the Web site said.

“What he learned is critical for strategic communication and journalism students,” Mason said.

Students can listen to Foley speak about his career in the media during a master class from 2 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. Thursday in Gannett Hall’s Fisher Auditorium. It is open for everyone to attend.

Amy White, outreach coordinator of the Center on Religion and the Professions, said during the class, he will discuss his experiences with public affairs and event organization within the Vatican and the media’s portrayal of Pope John Paul II’s funeral and Pope Benedict XVI’s election.

White said Foley’s visit to MU is a great opportunity for the campus and community to listen to someone with decades of experience.

“He has achieved a position within the Catholic Church that very few people achieve,” White said.

Mason said that Foley worked closely with Pope John Paul II in communicating the gospel through media and in helping to direct the church’s perception of the media.

“Pope John Paul II was well known for embracing and using the media,,” Mason said. “Cardinal Foley was central to that.”

Foley will be saying three Masses at the Newman Center, one on Friday and two on Sunday, and will also be at the Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church on Thursday morning as part of National Catholic Schools Week.