Q & A

1. A recognition of the need for articulate, reasoned and committed Catholics to be present in the media, especially during the papal visit when the Church will be placed under the spotlight.

2. Cardinal Newman’s call for “a laity, not arrogant, not rash in speech, not disputatious, but men [and women] who know their religion, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, who know what they hold and what they do not, who know their creed so well that they can give an account of it, who know so much of history that they can defend it.”

3. Pope Benedict XVI’s 1 February call, in his address to the English and Welsh bishops in Rome, for Catholics in the UK to “insist upon your right to participate in national debate through respectful dialogue with other elements in society” and for “great writers and communicators” to follow the example of Cardinal Newman in courageously communicating their faith.

A kind of Catholic Evidence Guild?

Yes, in the apologetic tradition – understanding your faith and the teaching of the Church, and learning how to express these clearly, succinctly, and reasonably. But CATHOLIC VOICES is different from the old model in that it is geared to the demands of the modern media.

So a kind of spin operation?

That suggests CATHOLIC VOICES tells people what to say and think. It’s not a PR operation in which people are given “messages”. We want to help people think through the contentious issues for themselves, so that they become familiar with the kinds of objections and perceptions that many people have of the Church, and get the media skills training they need to express themselves with confidence. If we have 20 people, we will have 20 different human experiences – but united by a shared faith.

So why the special training?

Partly the training is in media skills. Many people simply aren’t familiar with the idiom and the methods of modern TV and radio. That lack of familiarity can make even the most articulate Catholics defensive or simply ineffective. CATHOLIC VOICES will show how you can be open, transparent and positive in the media, as long as you are also strategic. Part of that is understanding the role of journalism and the pressures that exist on editors and journalists.

A large part of the training will be on the issues that the media – and society at large – is interested in. Church teaching can often seem abstract, aloof or inhuman; it needs grounding in real human experience. Rather than seminars in church teaching, we’re arranging vigorous dialogues with experts where the hard questions are not skirted but confronted straight on. That allows our team to think through their own positions, and for the co-ordinators to assess which speakers will be best to talk on which topics.

Why now?

The immediate reason for CATHOLIC VOICES is that the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the UK in September will put the spotlight on the Catholic Church to a degree not seen in this country since the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1982 or his death in 2005. Experience of both those events suggests there will be a strong media demand for people who can articulate the Church’s positions on issues, often with very little notice. The nature of the 24-hour news culture means that the ability to respond quickly to its demands is crucial to the success of any such operation. We are forming a team of people who are happy and confident to be thrown at a moment’s notice onto a TV or radio discussion, or who can write articles and take part in debates. That is something the media will enormously appreciate.

Is Catholic Voices a negative reflection on existing church communications?

No. The CCN and diocesan communications officers operate to a narrow remit – they speak officially, on behalf of bishops or their departments. By definition, the circumstances in which they choose to respond to media requests are limited by this fact. CATHOLIC VOICES isn’t trying to usurp those official channels – because we’re not an official body. We are mostly lay people making ourselves available to the media, happy to discuss our faith. We hope we are authoritative, by virtue of the excellence of our skills and formation, but we’re not official – we’re not spokespeople for the bishops, any more than is the Catholic Union, which is the body under whose auspices we operate. Like the Catholic Union as a whole, we’re all about bringing the voice of ordinary Catholics into the public forum.

So this is wholly separate from the bishops?

We have their blessing, and we’ll receive guidance and assistance from them. And we imagine that when the CCN is contacted by the media but don’t want to intervene officially, they’ll refer the media to us. The relationship is informal but co-operative and friendly.

How will it work when the Pope comes?

We will be in contact with the media over the next few months so that they know we exist and they can call on us. When they get a request for someone to come on a programme or take part in a debate, the project’s coordinators will be able to suggest people from the team who would be available and suitable.

What is the inspiration for the group?

CATHOLIC VOICES is inspired by an example of a successful church media operation in 2006, the Da Vinci Code Response Group. Like CATHOLIC VOICES, it was a team of ordinary Catholics who made themselves available to the media in the run-up to the release of the film. The Group was able to respond to the myths and misconceptions in the Dan Brown book which many people were inclined to believe. The Group’s seven members took part in dozens of interviews and programmes on radio and TV, issued press releases, conducted surveys and so on – it was widely praised at the time by PR companies as an example of an effective communications operation. CATHOLIC VOICES will be bigger and have a broader remit, but will operate on basically the same model, avoiding the twin dangers of institutional defensiveness on the one hand and naivete on the other.

Who is financing it?

CATHOLIC VOICES has been enabled by a start-up grant from a charitable foundation, but we are in need of further funds to see the project through to September. If you can help, please contact us on info@catholicvoices.org.uk

Who are the speakers?

In February we’ll begin selecting from candidates who have got in touch with us or who have been recommended to us. It’ll be a mixed bunch: mostly lay people, but including some clergy and religious; there’ll also be members of movements and other church organisations, as well as “ordinary” parishioners. We hope to publicise this quite widely, so we get a broad pool from which to select. Although some of the names will be familiar, on the whole we want fresh faces, people who would otherwise not be known to the media or who might be reluctant to appear in the media without support and training. We’re looking for commitment and an ability to think on your feet, and obviously a degree of intelligence and familiarity with some of the topics; but we want most of the speakers to be fresh faces.

Who will do the briefings?

We are calling on various experts in the 10 topic areas we have identified. The co-ordinators will seek to identify the key questions or issues, prepare briefings, and then invite the experts for a good-natured grilling. We can’t hope to cover everything, and we don’t know what will be in the news in the coming months, so we’ll be flexible. But we know, broadly, which are the aspects of church teaching or practice with which modern British society has greatest difficulty.

Is this an evangelisation initiative?

We do not see our task as evangelising through the media. We respect the media’s role to probe, question, and hold to account those who have power and influence, as the Church does. In responding to this demand, we are not so much evangelising as clearing the obstacles to evangelisation – presenting, we hope, the true face of the Church to replace the often mythical one portrayed in the media. What’s needed is an attitude of openness and transparency: we respect the media’s role in holding us to account, and we are happy to give an account of ourselves. If that leads to people having a truer view of the Church and the Catholic faith, we’ll have achieved our objectives. We are concerned less with persuading people than with articulating the Church’s positions in a way that is accessible, reasonable and accurate.

What are the topics?

Roughly as follows: the Church, its role and its beliefs; the Church and personal life; the Church and public life; the Church and current political and economic questions; the Church, population and development; clerical sexual abuse; the Church and science; the Church and non-Catholic religious bodies; the Vatican and the papacy; holiness and sainthood. There are many issues within this topic area; which we choose to focus on will in part depend on the availability of experts, and partly what is in the news. We hope later to publish the briefings in some form.

The Pope is coming to beatify Cardinal Newman. Is this anything to do with him, and will the team be made familiar with his writings?

CATHOLIC VOICES has as its mission statement Cardinal Newman’s desire for “a laity, not arrogant, not rash in speech, not disputatious, but men [and women] who know their religion, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, who know what they hold and what they do not, who know their creed so well that they can give an account of it, who know so much of history that they can defend it.” The figure of Newman will obviously be one of the topics the media will be interested in. Although the Cause has its own spokespeople, we hope that the CV team will have some familiarity with his thinking and writings, and can speak with authority about the beatification. But for CATHOLIC VOICES Newman’s main role is as a figure of inspiration, a courageous writer and intellectual who sacrificed everything for truth.

Who’s involved, and how does the structure work?

CATHOLIC VOICES is a project of the Catholic Union, whose president is Lord Brennan. He is one of the patrons, along with the Abbot of Worth, Christopher Jamison. Both are pre-eminent figures within the Church who are very familiar with the public world. The three co-ordinators who will run the project – Jack Valero, Austen Ivereigh and Kathleen Griffin - will be accountable to them. The project will be assisted by an Advisory Group, who are people we can call upon for support or guidance. Then there’s the Speakers’ Team, who will be the 20-25 people whom we are training. There will also be the Experts who come to give the briefings; on the whole they’ll be brought in from the outside, but they might also be part of the Speakers’ Team or Advisory Group.

Are there any plans beyond the papal visit?

If CATHOLIC VOICES is a success, we’re confident that after September there will be general support for it to continue in some form. We’d be delighted by that, but we’re not making at the moment any plans beyond the papal visit. But we think that the experience of CATHOLIC VOICES and the relationships which are formed have the potential to help transform the Church’s public profile, and that CATHOLIC VOICES will perform a valuable service to both Church and media far into the future.