Communications

Mandate and Goals for the Committee

The committee assists the bishops, both individually and collectively, to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the communications media as “pathways to intensify communion and to render more penetrating the proclamation of his word” (John Paul II, The Rapid Development, 2005). The committee seeks to support the work of evangelization and faith formation through a comprehensive approach to media that includes media relations, media production and programming, policy, review of entertainment media, publishing, distribution, and licensing with sensitivity towards culturally diverse communities.

Key Mission Responsibilities

1. Providing the public with accurate information about the activities of the USCCB and the Church; and developing appropriate media strategies and messages, in collaboration with USCCB committees and offices, to communicate to the Catholic and secular public the bishops’ response to issues of significance to the Church
2. Publishing, producing, licensing, and distributing USCCB statements/resources
3. Providing consultation on communication issues, including advising and representing the bishops
4. Developing and approving USCCB public policy positions related to the media
5. Developing programming for the Catholic Communication Campaign and awarding grants from the CCC
6. Licensing of USCCB copyrighted texts and collaborating with the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD) in the promotion of the New American Bible
7. Providing Catholics, especially families, with information they can use to evaluate entertainment media programming from a Catholic perspective
8. Assisting the Holy See in conveying papal statements and addressing other Vatican media issues

Key Mission Relationships

1. With bishops, diocesan communicators, and news media leaders
2. With international and national communications organizations and governments
3. With the international and national news media, and Catholic and Bible publishers
4. With the Holy See and other episcopal conferences, especially CELAM and those of Africa and Asia