Vatican
City, 5 April 2013
(VIS) – This morning in the Press Office of the Holy See, a press
conference was held to present the new print and digital versions of
the Jesuit journal La Civilta Cattolica (Catholic Civilization),
which is published in Italian from Rome. Speaking at the conference
were: Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, president of the Pontifical
Council for Social Communications; Msgr. Antoine Camilleri,
under-secretary for the Holy See’s Relations with States; and Fr.
Antonio Spadaro, S.J., director of the periodical.
“La
Civilta Cattolica,” Fr. Spadaro explained, “is Italy's oldest
journal among those which have never had an interruption in their
publication. Every 12 days for 163 years, it has published a journal
of over 100 pages. It is a cultural journal that features articles
written only by Jesuits. Its editors are specialists but they use a
language for readers who are not 'experts' [in the various areas].”
“Established
in 1850, La Civilta Cattolica seeks to share an intellectual
experience that is enlightened by faith and deeply engaged in the
cultural, social, economic, political, artistic, and scientific life
of our age. It does not seek to share its reflections merely within
the Catholic world, but with whoever is looking for reliable sources
of formation, capable of making one thing and of developing one's
personal judgement. … By its tradition and nature, La Civilta
Cattolica expresses a 'high' form of cultural journalism, which
places it within a difficult borderland. … We don't intend to
merely 'follow' and comment upon cultural events or ideas that have
already been formulated. In as far as possible, we want to grasp the
idea of what will be, anticipate trends and events, predict their
impact, and keep our reader's attention engaged.”
Thinking
of the changes that the periodical will undergo, Fr. Spadaro noted
that, “from 1850 to 1933, the journal's articles weren't signed in
order to convey that they weren't the expression of one individual,
but rather of a community: the so-called 'college or writers', which
was actually composed of seven Jesuits. Today more than ever,
however, our culture is diversified. In respect to the past,
therefore, the presence of international signatures of Jesuit fathers
and the topics treated will increase, even If the journal will always
remain 'home-made' within the established newsroom.”
“La
Civilta Cattolica hasn't changed its format since 1970. This is the
first time in the journal's 163 years that its graphic layout has
been subjected to an actual and coordinated design plan, which covers
from a restyling of the masthead … to a version for tablets. … In
structural terms, the 'cronache' (reports) section will disappear,
since our world is one in which reporting is entrusted to daily
newspapers or even to real-time blogs and tweets. Instead, we will be
focusing on 'bridges', that is, on reflections, critical evaluations,
reasoning, and even on the most current contemporary events, thanks
to the 'Focus' section that will consist of articles tied to current
events in politics, economics, the international stage, society, and
law. Reflection on the Church will have a fixed place at the heart,
that is the centre, of the journal. New sections, such as 'Profile'
and 'Interview', will be added.”
“The
journal will also become available for browsing on tablets with
applications for iPad, iPhone, Android, Kindle Fire, and Windows 8.
Right now it is possible to download the last two issues of the
journal: the last one of the old version and the first one of the new
version.”
“Today,
communicating means less and less 'transmitting' news and more
'sharing' with other visions and ideas. This is why the journal's
content, in its essential form of abstracts, has been 'opened' to the
social networks for using, sharing, commenting, and debate in the
ways made possible in that arena: not on our site but on those such
as Facebook and Twitter.”
“In
addition, thanks to collaboration by Google, a project has been
launched to make all the issues published from 1850 to 2008
accessible on the web. In fact, Google had digitalized the volumes
for their Google Books project, through agreements with several
libraries in Europe and the United States. The issues still protected
by copyright law will now be made available by our authorization.”
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