TORONTO (CCN) — Charlotte Taillon, a resident of Edmonton, was 31 weeks pregnant when she walked the streets of Toronto, interviewing volunteers ministering to the homeless.
Capuchin Father Kiran Monis also was interviewing Toronto homeless, but he focused on those living in a group home.
The two were among eight participants from three continents who gathered in Toronto Aug. 10-16 for an intensive journalism seminar, God in the City, organized by Canadian Catholic News.
Each participant had to produce one news story for print; submit four photos; and produce either an audio or video story.
Taillon has a background in government communications and experience as a press secretary. The mother of six said she had “always wanted to be a journalist,” but family responsibilities prevented her from pursuing it earlier. She said she nearly missed the application deadline, but felt compelled to go.
“Everything just kind of worked out,” she said. “I saw that as God’s grace helping me to learn a new skill that I always wanted to learn.”
Taillon joined the Summer Street Patrol, an apostolate of St. Patrick Church in downtown Toronto. She accompanied parishioners and volunteers as they shared their food and their time with the homeless. Although she thought her story would be an economic analysis, it shifted to address “the dehumanization of the homeless” and the need, through Catholic social teaching, to remove stigmas. The experience, she said, opened her eyes to the challenges journalists face.
“I didn’t realize how difficult it was to bring a story together … sometimes you have too much content and you just don’t know how it’s all going to work,” she explained. She said the seminar gave her a new appreciation for the demands of journalism.
Father Kiran Monis is a priest from India currently doing graduate studies in social communication at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
For his field assignment, Father Monis reported on a Capuchin-run residence in Toronto that provides community for people struggling with mental health issues and who were previously homeless. He visited the house and met the residents. On the second day, he joined them for coffee to experience how they live as a community.
Father Monis, who interned at Vatican News in Rome, said he was struck by the seminar’s discussion on the purpose of Catholic journalism.
“We are asked to do the journalism and not to create the journalism,” he said. “We are not here to work for God, but to work with God, and when we are working with God, definitely God is with us to speak the truth, to stand for justice, to stand for values taught by the Catholic Church.” This guiding principle, he said, will shape both his academic work in Rome and his future pastoral ministry in India.
Lee Purcell, a communications professor from Indiana with an interest in art, interviewed Canadian iconographer Georgi Danevski at work.
Hannah Dell, who works in the communications office of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote on the Catholic Women’s League of Canada and its 105th Annual Convention, which coincided with the seminar.
Andras Kiraly, chief media officer for the Metropolia of the Hungarian Greek Catholic Church, reported on the history of the married priesthood in the Eastern churches in Canada.
Jessica Meditz of Queens, New York, works with DeSales Media. She produced a multifaceted story about how Haiti’s crisis of gang violence has affected immigration to Canada and how the Church is responding.
Miles Smit, a resident of Toronto, produced an analysis on the latest news regarding Catholic education in Ontario.
Laura Ieraci, CCN vice president and seminar organizer, emphasized that while Catholic media face the same financial and structural challenges as mainstream outlets, its mission remains vital.
“We have messages from Pope Francis and now Pope Leo encouraging journalists to maintain the quality of their reporting because it is important to society and it is important to the Church,” she said.
The seminar, which follows earlier journalism courses offered online by CCN, provided in-person training on how to produce quality reporting that serves both the public and the Church, she added.
Father Mark Destura, RCJ, is a missionary priest belonging to the Congregation of the Rogationists. He is currently studying social communications at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He produced this report onsite as part of the God in the City Catholic journalism seminar in Toronto, Aug. 10-16.
