CATHOLIC VOICES began with a single aim: to ensure that Catholics and the Church were well represented in the media when Pope Benedict came to the UK in September 2010. Inspired by that visit, it has become much more: a school of a new Christian humanism; and the laboratory of a new kind of apologetics.

Last year, Catholic Voices trained 20 young professionals in media skills and organised intensive briefings on key issues which cause controversy in the media. The project involved co-ordinators, speakers, experts, patrons, a chaplain, a website and blog.  Taking as our model the Blessed Cardinal Newman’s desire for “an intelligent, well-instructed laity [.... who.... ] understand how faith and reason stand to each other, what are the bases and principles of Catholicism...” we developed a number of methods and principles which were put into practice in more than 100 radio and television interviews before and during the papal visit. Click here for a sample.

The Catholic Voices team continue to offer an authoritative (but not official) group of articulate speakers who put the Catholic case in interviews and debates — clearly, reasonably, humanly, succinctly, compellingly. If you would like an interviewee, please contact us here. (Please note that while Catholic Voices has the blessing of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, it does not speak officially for the Conference; media seeking official statements should contact the Catholic Communications Network.)

Since September 2010 the speakers have continued to meet for a series of talks and briefings. Dialogues have been held with humanists and sex abuse survivors. The coordinators have spoken widely in the UK and abroad about the project, assisting groups in other countries, such as Spain, to create similar teams. Catholic Voices have continued to speak in debates, write articles, and appear on TV and radio discussions and news programmes.

The success and originality of Catholic Voices have led to much media comment and requests for help with setting up similar projects around the world (eg in Spain), as well as requests for materials. 

A wealth of information is contained in two books published on 23 September 2011. Catholic Voices: putting the Church’s case in an era of 24-hour news (Darton, Longman & Todd) by Austen Ivereigh & Kathleen Griffin is aimed at ordinary Catholics who want to learn to put better the Church's case, not just in the media, but in daily conversations with friends and colleagues. It summarises the methodology, principles and briefings. Meanwhile "Who Know Where They Stand": Catholic Voices and the Papal Visit to the UK (Pontifical University of Santa Croce, Rome) by Jack Valero and Austen Ivereigh tells the "backstory" of the project. It is aimed at church communicators wanting to learn from the project in order to develop similar teams.

A new speakers programme - which, like the first, is free of charge to those selected as result of a charitable contribution -- is being held in Leeds in the Autumn, held over three weekends. Applications for this are now closed. If you are interested in taking part in a speakers’ programme next year please email info@catholicvoices.org.uk.

A new Catholic Voices Academy will be launched in late September, and begin in October. The Academy is inspired by Pope Benedict XVI’s appeal to Catholics to learn how to be “public” people, knowing how to navigate the crossroads of political and social conversation. The Academy supports the bishops of England and Wales in their “call to a deeper social engagement”. Through regular meetings, briefings and debates, the CV Academy brings together Catholics committed to the public square to develop common positions drawn from Catholic Social Teaching, the doctrine of religious freedom, and the value of family and life – helping to create a humanism, shaped by faith’s wisdom, which is open to all. Briefings, public debates, lectures and panel discussions are held alongside regular workshops training Catholics to put their case reasonably and compellingly. Details about events and membership to follow.

You can download our latest brochure here.

To contact the Catholic Voices coordinators, please email us on info@catholicvoices.org.uk.