CNS STORY: Cardinal says media has ignored work of African bishops' synod

SYNOD-MEDIA Oct-23-2009 (370 words) xxxi

Cardinal says media has ignored work of African bishops' synod

By Sarah Delaney
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Three weeks of intensive discussion among African bishops about the challenges they face in their poor and often war-torn countries have been largely ignored by the media, a South African cardinal said.

Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier, archbishop of Durban and a co-president of the Synod of Bishops for Africa, also has complained that news about Africa in newspapers and on television in the rest of the world is usually bad news, and that positive stories are rarely reported.

The Vatican's daily newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, asked Cardinal Napier Oct. 23 whether sufficient attention had been given to the synod; he replied, "Absolutely not. It's been very little."

Some Catholic newspapers and radio stations across Africa covered the synod, which was to close Oct. 25, but "as far as the rest of the media is concerned, I don't think they are doing much," the cardinal said.

"Spiritual or religious things are not reported, unless they are controversial," he said. "In that case," he added, "they are sure to be published!"

The 275 members of the synod have discussed a vast array of topics regarding the church's work in Africa, including economic injustice, war, hunger, Christian-Islamic dialogue, family life, environmental exploitation and the particular plight of women, just to name a few.

Even before the Vatican newspaper interview, Cardinal Napier had taken a gentle swipe at the media for ignoring the positive aspects of the continent while emphasizing disasters and tragedies. "Africa is much more," he told journalists Oct. 14. "It embodies values and abilities that can offer spiritual richness, even to the rest of the world."

He admitted in the L'Osservatore interview that the bishops themselves during the synod presented the difficulties faced in Africa, often dramatically. "We are trying to describe the African reality, and unfortunately it must be said that in many parts there are serious problems," he said.

But, the cardinal said, "there are also positive realities," like the reconciliation processes in Rwanda, Burundi and South Africa. "We should ask the media to announce good news as well," he said.

An example of good news that most media outlets would tend to ignore, he said, "is the growth and deepening of the faith there."

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