TBCMedia UPDATE

Carmel News

Seminary Formation for Professors and Formators

on Commmunication

As part of the networking efforts of the media ministry, the Titus Brandsma Media
Program becomes a member of the Asian Communication Network (ACN) web
community.

The program’s first encounter with ACN was in a study program thru a seminar
conducted in partnership with Inter-Congregational Theological Center (ICTC) last May
27-28 on the relevance and application of communication on formation and ministry.

The said activity focused on the three major points of its rationale: making sense of
contemporary ministry, making sense of social communication and approaches to
innovative instruction. Fr. Jerry Martinson, SJ, known as Uncle Jerry in Taiwan spoke
about his ministry as priest and media practitioner and his struggles in getting where he is
now.

Joe de Mesa, professor of Basic Theology at ICTC discussed “A New Theology of

Communication”. He primarily stressed on the people’s experience of God and how He is
relating to us. He explained the Word of God, as God’s very self, active on our behalf.
And how the Church simply participates (“mission dei”), We participate in God’s
communication (“communication dei”) that leads to quality of life (ZOE).

A Malaysian speaker, Augustine Loorthusamy, entertained as well as informed the first

day afternoon session with Communication, Media and Values Formation. Highlight was
on Value-distortions in a Media-mediated Society wherein he compared family values
amongst media values:

Family Values Media Values

being having
small big
love sex
age/wisdom youth
needs wants
local imported
cooperation competition
product package
other-centered self-centered
save spend
truth distortion
 spiritual material

Conrad Saldanha discussed the “culture of death” on how death is packaged now as
entertainment through media. His expertise lies on the Media Business and Culture of
Life. He focused on the Language of the Alphabet and the Language of Electricity, which
is the set up now – global village, everything in life is interconnected and interdependent.

Session on Media-tion, Pluralism and Globalism: Understanding the Contemporary

Locus of Ministry ended the first day by Nadarajah, a freelance documentary filmmaker.
He mainly expressed concern in the sustainability of the parish with three major factors
surrounding it: media-tion (the role that media play in the lives of the parishioners),
pluralism (mono-culture of the parish leading to unsustainability) and globalism (parish
being isolated and independent).

Second day focused on the Church efforts to communication thru its documents and
structures. Professor Chainarong Monthienvichienchai enumerated a long list of
documents and encyclicals written by Popes about the different aspect of communication
and how it is relevant to the Church and to its people. He also explained the
communication structures within the Church, the people responsible in handling the
media offices in the dioceses.

Charles Bertille, a Church worker for over 20 years, gave his lecture on the New
Pedagogy in Teaching and Learning. This specifically gave insights on the new
approaches to teaching and learning, types of intelligence that need to be known to help
seminarians integrate these and become what they learn.

The speakers of this seminar are all a part of the core members of ACN, an inter-faith,
interdisciplinary initiative of Catholic Communication of Asia.

This network group is focused on providing a platform for active sharing among
concerned Asian communicators on issues of local and global concerns. Organizing a
network of resource persons in the field of communications. Training individuals, group,
communities and organizations to be effective communicators and to apply their abilities
in collective decision-making processes. Facilitating through the use of traditional and
information and communication technologies (ICT), the rootedness of a people to their
ecological reality, their local culture and their “world feel”.

Seminars and Workshops given by TBCMP

Media and Spirituality through Film Dialogue module of the media program was given to
more than 30 college seminarians of St. Francis de Sales Theological Seminary in
Maruwoy, Lipa, Batangas last June 18, 2004.
Based on the evaluation of the seminarians, the activity was very satisfying and liberating
since it is their first time to look at a film in a different approach, critically and
symbolically.

The films that were usually watched during the exercise are Children of Heaven and
JOLOGS of Star Cinema.

This module was also given to 30 seminarians of St. Paul Seminary, Cavite last February
27, 2004.

Fr. Rey Caigoy, O. Carm, currently the president of Mount Carmel College-Escalante and
also a part of the pool of lecturers of the TBCMedia Program gave a seminar on media
awareness to 48 college seminarians of St. John Mary Vianney College Seminary, San
Carlos City, Negros Occidental last June 18-19, 2004.

Module on Media and Spirituality thru Film Dialogue

The Media and Spirituality thru Film Dialogue is the new module that the Titus
Brandsma Media Program is currently offering to seminarians and students of different
schools and seminaries. This is a one-day, two-part course on Media and Spirituality and
Introduction to Film Dialogue.

This is the formalized version of what the program pelikula@titubrandsma has been
practicing for over three years now.

The first part of the module, Media and Spirituality, is explaining the relationship of two
disciplines and concepts and how they are interconnected. How media can open
unconsciously propagate different spiritual values and how spirituality can be manifested
through media content. Introduction to Film Dialogue, second-part, gives basic
knowledge on how to conduct film dialogue, how different it is from other concepts and
what are its major characteristics and objectives. It also offers the understanding of
different types of viewers through the concepts of Sensibilities and Sensitivities.

The course is purely experiential to those who would like to avail it because the module
in itself is an interaction with oneself and others. Half day of the module will be done
through film viewing and conducting your own film dialogue session. The module is
designed purely to share the experience rather than being too informational on the part of
the audience. It is systematic and a goal-oriented activity leading to the audiences’ more
in-depth appreciation and reflection with regards to the film viewed.