It is too simple to dismiss the Angelus on RTE TV and radio as "an anachronism which asserts the dominance of a sectarian view," Mr Adrian Moynes, special assistant to the director general at RTE said at the Prague conference.
In Ireland, he said, there are many people of all religious outlooks who welcome it "as a statement, not of denominational devotion, but as a simple broadcast acknowledgement of the Christian heritage. They value the fact that their mass communications has space for a moment of reflection." He told the conference that opinion on broadcasting the Angelus was divided in Ireland. Some traditional Catholics see it as "a reassurance" that God's still in his heaven and the world is not entirely bad. Then there are those who believe it's time to do away with it. "Their position is that we live in a secular republic at the end of the 20th century, we are seeking peace and reconciliation in Ireland, we should not offend the sensitivities of other religious groups by transmitting a Roman Catholic devotion every day." However, he added, there was no lively debate on the matter in Ireland - "rather a murmur heard from time to time".
Speaking as a scheduler (Moynes was head of scheduling at RTE), he said the presence of the Angelus at 6 p.m. on RTE 1 TV did not reduce the number of viewers. At a time when the audience is tuning in for the news, it caused "not so much as a ripple or hiccup". In fact, in the 15-minute segment before the Angelus, the channel's average national audience share was about 25 per cent; in the 15-minute period after it - i.e. at the start of the news - that percentage share rose to 46 per cent.
Other pressures were involved also, he said. "If you were to be commercial in your attitude, you could argue that this is a minute when advertising revenue might be earned, and so the Angelus is in fact a very expensive transmission." But the Angelus has been broadcast for nearly 50 years in Ireland, and - though the country had changed greatly over that time - it was too simple to dismiss it as an anachronism. Ireland has known 1,500 years of European Christian culture, and remains a country where the practice of religious belief continued to be a marked characteristic of public and private life, he said. The Angelus was valued by many as a space for reflection, which he felt was part of the function of religious broadcasting.
"If we confine ourselves to the language of materialism in broadcasting, if the marketplace is our only common ground, if we serve only propaganda and ignore the need to promote understanding, then we will lose the ability to conduct the discourse of the spirit," he said, and "in that darkness the phantoms will advance."
He drew his audience's attention to the time of the outbreak of the Gulf War, when the media featured strands of journalism "that could only be called racist".
"At that time, religious journalism were necessary correctives, and they played an honourable role in preserving civilised sensibilities." He referred to a BBC Thought for the Day broadcast at the time by a Jesuit priest, who reminded people that Iraq's capital, Baghdad, was once a cosmopolitan centre where the great faiths and cultures of Islam, Judaism and Christianity flourished in civilised co-existence.
Referring to other religious programmes on RTE, such as Time Out and Would You Believe? he said viewing figures were up to expectations (about 30 per cent for the latter, week to week), and were made up mainly of people over 35, which reflected the age composition of those generally who watch news, current affairs, and information programmes on the channel.
He was intrigued by the million young people who had gathered for the papal Mass at Longchamps in Paris last August - in a country where there are fewer than 100 vocations to the Catholic priesthood per year, and only one in every 200 priests is under 40.
One theory suggests the Pope is attractive to young people as a spiritual leader, but not as the leader of their parents' religion. "Religions" are what their parents believe in; "spiritualities" are what their contemporaries believe in, he said.
Travel, music, fashion, cuisine, "all these various aspects of lifestyle and culture around the world" are successful elements in programming for young people. "As distinctive signatures of a culture, religion and spirituality are every bit as noteworthy as food and music," he said. "Why do programmemakers show so little interest?"
Rebel Without a Cause
In conjunction with Cinema in the Classroom screenings, we look at the issues raised and archetypes created by the James Dean classic
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