The vitality of Catholic Television in Latin America
The seventh seminar took place in Buenos Aires (Argentina) from 20 – 23 April 2008 in the Argentina Catholic University (UCA). Fifty-five people were registered, a majority coming from the Latin American and Caribbean countries ( Argentina, Mexico, Cuba, Ecuador, Trinidad, Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, Haiti, Venezuela, Belize, Panama, Peru) but still with participants from France, Hong Kong, Spain, Taiwan, USA, South Africa, and Germany.
This was an extraordinary opportunity to discover the vitality of Catholic television stations and initiatives in that part of the world. A previous meeting – the Latin-American Congress of Catholic Television - had already taken place in Medellin (Colombia) in May 2006. The seminar in Buenos Aires was seen as a new step in the collaboration between stations, production centres in the context of the presence of the Church in the television media. The CELAM (Episcopal Conference of Latin America) was represented at the seminar. A meeting was held at the secretariat of the bishops' conference and the participants went for a visit to the archdiocesan television station Canal 21.
From the conclusions taken during the seminar, we would like to point out the offer made by some participants to produce the SIGNS Magazine in Latin America. ADB (Ecuador) took the challenge to produce the first episode of SIGNOS, in collaboration with other production centres in Latin America. The wish was also expressed to have a new seminar in Latin America, probably in Mexico in 2010.
