Aid to the Church in Need: UCAN news - 30 years of fostering a sense of identity through the news

UCAN news - 30 years of fostering a sense of identity through the news

Posted by Press release on 24/8/2009, 2:11 pm
Board Administrator

UCAN - 30 years of fostering a sense of identity through the news

"UCANews delivers a first-class service and also maintains a high professional standard", explains Father Joe Antony. It sounds like a carefully worded advertising pitch, but in fact it is sincere praise from someone who should know. Joe Antony is editor of "The New Leader", a Catholic weekly published in Chennai, the capital of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. He is paying tribute to the press agency, the "Union of Catholic Asian News" (UCAN), which on 1st September this year will be celebrating the 30th anniversary of its founding.
Joe Anthony is a Jesuit priest and a journalist. He has been editor of the New Leader for 17 years now and during that time has brought it from a stagnant and loss-making publication to a profitable and widely respected magazine. Father Anthony strives tirelessly and willingly for the highest possible professionalism in the Catholic media, and a crucial element for him in this work has been the UCANews agency, which was established in 1979 and is now based in Bangkok and Hong Kong.
Nine years before, in November 1970, Pope Paul VI had met with the Asian bishops in Manila and had urged the local bishops to foster an "Asian identity" among Catholics, for example via the exchange of information. Today UCANews has become the largest Catholic news agency in Asia and is supported by the bishops from all 31 countries of Central, East, South and Southeast Asia, represented by the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC).

The bishops of Asia have supported the agency to the best of their abilities. Yet since the majority of them are based in countries where Christians are a small minority and have only extremely limited means, UCANews remains dependent on outside support. The international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has been supporting its work for many years.
UCANews has a broad network of correspondents, most of them freelance correspondents, who seek to keep the readers informed about the reality of everyday life for Catholic Christians and for the Catholic Church in Asia. Anyone who is willing to work with the agency is first given professional training. Professionalism is of course an essential component for the agency in maintaining a credible and convincing presence.
This insistence on professionalism comes at a cost, however, since well-trained journalists do not come cheaply. And so UCANews continues to be dependent on donations. But at least the agency has achieved one of its objectives. For the news it provides about Asia's Christians now finds its way not only into Catholic newspapers and magazines but also helps to convey a picture of the Church in Asia to a wider readership, well beyond these circles. UCANews is now read worldwide. And its 30 years of sustained press work have likewise helped to foster a sense of common identity among the Catholics of Asia.
This fact is borne out not least by the readers’ letters. To cite just two examples: Father Rayappa, from India, writes: "You are conveying a great deal of information about the situation of Christians, following the persecutions in Orissa. Thank you, UCANews.“ And Jane-Frances Hew, commenting on an article about the work of one aid agency in Malaysia, writes: "Some complain that God is dead, that he does not exist. If each one of us would serve a neighbour in need, be responsible in the use of his gift to us, then we would have done much to communicate to a darkening world, the good news of God's saving Act. Thank you UCAN.“

Editor’s Notes:

Directly under the Holy See, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic charity – helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Fr Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An outstanding Apostle of Charity”, the organisation is now at work in about 130 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 46.5 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.

While ACN gives full permission for the media to freely make use of the charity’s press releases, please acknowledge ACN as the source of stories when using the material.

For more information, contact please contact the Australian office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148.Web: www.aidtochurch.org

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