TORONTO (CCN) — Pope Leo XIV called Catholics around the world to pray for evangelization in cities this month, just as Catholic journalists and journalism students were preparing to bring Catholic journalism to the streets of Toronto.
Students from across North America will gather Aug. 9-15 for the second annual God in the City Catholic journalism intensive, a weeklong seminar that sends participants into Canada’s largest city to report on stories of faith, poverty, immigration, culture and evangelization.
The timing closely mirrors Pope Leo’s August prayer intention, released Aug. 1, in which he asks Catholics to pray “for evangelization in the city.”
In a video released by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, the Holy Father acknowledged that while cities offer “freedom and opportunity,” they can also become places of “anonymity and isolation.”
“Make us a Church that goes forth, able to reach out to the peripheries, to console those who are lonely, and to sow fraternity and connection instead of giving in to indifference,” the pope prayed.
According to the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, nearly 45 per cent of the world’s population now lives in urban areas, making cities among the Church’s largest mission territories.
The journalism seminar in Toronto, organized by Canadian Catholic News (CCN), is designed to help emerging journalists discover and tell those stories by reporting directly from neighbourhoods across the city.
This year’s keynote speaker at the seminar’s public event will be retired foreign correspondent Brian Stewart, the former CBC journalist whose decades-long career reporting from conflict zones and humanitarian crises earned him some of the country’s highest journalism honours.
Participants spend the week learning reporting, interviewing and multimedia storytelling while producing stories about Catholic life and the wider community. Last year’s inaugural course generated stories on homelessness, refugees, mental health, sacred art, and urban ministry.
Pope Leo concluded his August prayer by asking Christian communities to become places “where no one feels invisible, and where the joy of your Gospel shines in the hidden lives of so many brothers and sisters.”
He also prayed that Catholics would become “bold and creative missionaries” who proclaim Christ’s love “with their lives — a love capable of overcoming haste, noise and anonymity.”
The God in the City program begins Sunday, Aug. 9, in Toronto.
This story includes material originally reported by Vatican News and distributed by OSV News.
