In an interview for Turnul Sfatului (Council Tour), the director of the Basilica News Agency, patriarchal adviser Aurelian Iftimiu urged everyone to share “The Good to Know” online.
The interview was occasioned by the 15th anniversary since the launch of Basilica News Agency’s website.
“Initially thought of as a point of convergence for the other newsrooms of the Media Centre of the Romanian Patriarchate, later, the Basilica News Agency was increasingly guided by the concept of the major press agencies in the country and abroad. Thus, the editors of Basilica.ro assimilated new practices and working methods in a long training process, which continues today”, Basilica Director Aurelian Iftimiu explained.
“Visibility brings about an increasing responsibility, especially since 7-8 years ago the Internet was home to an obvious negative effervescence towards the Church.”
“Basilica is about the Church and about Good. We couldn’t let the Church just be discredited in the online space, and we pressed the gas pedal for everything that modern communication, online journalism, social media marketing, PR, search engine optimization meant,” the patriarchal adviser added.
“Practically, the mission of everything Basilica.ro means is to promote and announce to the edges of the (virtual) world how God works in people’s lives and how people can work together to cultivate the perennial values of faith, love, hope, solidarity, brotherhood.”
“Often, reading some testimonies from people perhaps unknown until we interviewed them, I was filled with light. I was inspired and encouraged to continue with my team the online mission,” the director of the Romanian Patriarchate’s news agency noted.
“We also saw the Agency as a tool through which religious journalism can be formed at the level of our country.”
Aurelian Iftimiu also explained the difficulties of the process by which Basilica.ro informs, educates, inspires and catechises: “What the world sees on our communication channels can take days and even weeks of work, reconsideration, editing, polishing. We want to offer only the best out of respect for our readers and followers.”
“However, we also have fatigue, wear and tear, disappointments, and discouragements, which leave their mark on what we do. But with the help of many prayers from people known and unknown, we are overcoming them all and making progress.”
“The biggest challenge is to maintain our ecclesial missionary consciousness in the tumult of the Internet,” the director of the Basilica News Agency also stated.
“It seems that everything else can be overcome more easily, but in order to have the mind always centred in Christ and to keep our peace of mind and heart, we must cultivate humility and the consciousness that we are “workers in the Lord’s vineyard”, not princes of the online realm.”
Photography courtesy of Basilica.ro / Raluca Ene
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