In Canada, intensive summer seminar trains journalists to report Catholic news
Canadian Catholic News launched a weeklong "God in the City" summer seminar in Toronto (Aug 9‑15) to train journalists in faith‑based reporting. The program builds on earlier online classes and emphasizes hands‑on newsroom experience, with instructors guiding students through story research in the city. Participants, many from outside Toronto, learn to locate and report on Church‑related stories, receiving coaching on sourcing, pitching, and narrative development. The seminar, coordinated by veteran journalist Laura Ieraci, aims to refresh skills for both newcomers and seasoned reporters, fostering collaboration and creative storytelling.
3 months ago
The “God in the City” Catholic Journalism Summer Seminar, organized by Canadian Catholic News, offers a week‑long, intensive training program in Toronto that blends newsroom practice with Catholic‑focused reporting, drawing participants from across Canada and providing hands‑on experience in finding and covering faith‑related stories 1 2.
The seminar runs from August 9 to 15, 2026, in Canada’s largest city. It grew out of online classes that began in 2023 and was launched as an in‑person intensive in 2025 1. Founder and coordinator Laura Ieraci, a veteran Catholic journalist with over twenty years of experience, leads the program and emphasizes the value of a “newsroom experience” for remote‑working writers 2.
Students receive instruction in core journalistic techniques—news writing, interviewing, and ethics—while being encouraged to integrate their Catholic faith into their reporting. Daily Mass, prayer, and a chapel are provided, though there is no formal faith‑formation curriculum 1. Instructors accompany participants as they scout the city for stories about parishes, Catholic organizations, or issues of interest to the Church, helping them adjust and pivot when obstacles arise 2.
The seminar attracts both newcomers to journalism and those seeking to refresh their skills. Charlotte Taillon, a communications professional from Edmonton who attended while 34 weeks pregnant, described the intensive as “very informative” and credited it with giving her the confidence to pursue a journalism career 1. Participants report a supportive environment, with instructors and peers readily answering questions and encouraging field reporting even in hot weather 2. Feedback ranges from discovering a new vocation to confirming that journalism is not the right path for some 1.
The core aim is to teach students how to cover stories from a Catholic perspective—considering how faith influences interview questions and story angles. While the seminar does not act as a job‑placement service, organizers assist graduates in exploring career opportunities 2.
The deadline to apply for the 2026 session is July 10. Interested candidates can find more information on the Canadian Catholic News website 1.*
Investigate the Catholic Church’s guidelines for faith‑based journalism
Catholic guidelines for faith-based journalism converge on one central conviction: communication is a moral act ordered to the truth about God and man, practiced for the common good, and constrained by the dignity and rights of persons. Across different documents and papal addresses, the Church repeatedly links journalistic ethics with ecclesial integrity—especially the duty to respect the faith, morals, and the teaching authority of bishops and the Magisterium.
Faith-based journalism is not chiefly “religious content” added to news. It is news work done with a conscience shaped by the Gospel: the journalist sees the media task as a service that must not be reduced to profit, ideology, or audience manipulation. Pope John Paul II calls journalism “a ‘sacred’ task,” entrusted for the common good and especially for the good of “society’s weakest groups.”
More specifically, the Church’s instruction on social communications (CDF, 1992) emphasizes that Catholics engaged in journalism have a right to communicate their thought, but they must do so while:
This frames the baseline: freedom exists, but not as a self-justifying absolute—its moral limits are grounded in truth, rights, and ecclesial communion.
The Church rejects journalism that harms truth—whether factual truth or the deeper “truth about man.” John Paul II teaches that:
“Nothing… can be written, produced or broadcast to the detriment of the truth… [not only] the truth of the facts you report, but also of the ‘truth about man,’ of the dignity of the human person…”
This implies faith-based journalism has a distinctive obligation: to report facts accurately and to avoid reporting that deforms the human person through lies, exploitation, or contempt.
John Paul II explicitly warns against a newsroom governed only by “economic forces, profit and partisan interests” and insists that communication be ordered to the common good, especially the vulnerable (children, poor, sick, marginalized).
Francis likewise frames the mission: journalism is not merely speed or “audience impact.” Instead,
“the heart of information is not the speed… but persons,” and informing others means “forming others.”
So, Catholic faith-based journalism evaluates stories by their human effects—how they educate consciences, build trust, and reduce harm.
John Paul II directly teaches:
“No freedom, including freedom of expression, is absolute: it is limited… by its duty to respect the dignity and legitimate freedom of others.”
The implication is important for faith-based journalism: “I have a right to say it” does not settle the moral question. The Church asks whether publication respects persons, protects truth, and avoids turning persons into objects.
Multiple documents connect journalistic credibility with resisting temptations that distort reality:
Catholic faith-based journalism is therefore not naive optimism; it is disciplined reporting that refuses to inflate outrage for clicks or conceal inconvenient truth.
John Paul II (1985) emphasizes how Catholic journalism should reflect Christ through:
“accuracy, by fairness and by that hunger and thirst for justice…”
That same address also challenges a purely scandal-oriented “news logic.” He notes that contemporary journalism sometimes seeks out “hidden sinners,” and while exposing crime can be salutary, he “would also hope” Catholic journalism would also seek out “hidden saints”—the humble good that quietly witnesses faith in action.
So, faith-based journalism has an editorial formation function: it widens the moral imagination of the public, not just the spectacle of wrongdoing.
The Church’s media ethics document stresses that the Church’s communications should be exemplary and committed to “communicating the fullness of the truth” about human life and history, “especially as it is contained in God’s revealed word” and expressed by the teaching of the Magisterium.
This is a direct safeguard against a “selective faith” approach—where only politically useful religious statements are communicated, rather than the integral truth of Christian doctrine and morals.
Ethics in Communications requires that the Church practice communication that is:
It also insists that “those who speak for [the Church]” must be honest and straightforward in their relations with journalists.
The same document clarifies:
“No one… has a right to speak for the Church, or imply he or she does, unless properly designated; and personal opinions should not be presented as the Church’s teaching.”
This applies especially when journalists cover Church issues: faith-based reporting requires careful distinctions between (a) what the Church teaches, (b) what individuals argue, and (c) what is speculative or non-authoritative.
Ethics in Communications states that Catholics have rights connected to communication and expression, but these must be exercised with “deference to revealed truth and the Church’s teaching” and with respect for others’ ecclesial rights.
It also notes the value of “a two-way flow of information and views between pastors and faithful,” grounded in the right of dialogue and information within the Church.
This is a call for mature ecclesial journalism: engaged, not adversarial; communicative, not suppressive.
Francis’s World Communications Day teaching provides a particularly useful synthesis: “Peace is the true news.” He rejects a “sentimental” peace that denies real problems, insisting instead on journalism that is truthful and opposed to falsehoods, sloganism, and sensationalism.
He also adds a constructive editorial direction:
In Catholic terms, this does not mean moral relativism; it means refusing to treat violence and polarization as inevitable or to commercialize them.
Catholic journalism is not only a rulebook; it presumes a formed person. John Paul II (2002) defines a professional journalist who is Catholic as someone of integrity whose life reflects Jesus and the Gospel.
He adds concrete character requirements:
These traits translate the Church’s ethical principles into lived habit.
Drawing these documents together, Catholic guidelines for faith-based journalism imply several operational commitments:
Catholic guidelines for faith-based journalism can be summarized as a moral grammar of media: truth (fact and human dignity), charity (respect and fairness), justice (a hunger for what repairs rather than exploits), and communion (fidelity to Church teaching and respect for legitimate authority).