The Romanian Patriarchate’s Basilica News Agency marked its 15th anniversary on Friday. On this occasion, the agency’s director, Aurelian Iftimiu, was invited to “The Light of Knowledge” show on Radio Trinitas.

He spoke with the producer Narcisa Urucu about the Church’s communication in the era of new media technologies, the need to provide the general public with an accurate picture of the activity and message of the Romanian Orthodox Church, but also about the desire to inspire people and communities to perform good deeds in society.

“The Good to Know is our motto. We identify with it, but we hope to convey not only that, not to convey to our readers that they only have to know what good is, but also to do good. That’s why we hope to have the motto not only The Good to Know, but also the Good to be done,” the patriarchal adviser said.

He thanked His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel, the agency’s founder, for his vision and support for this media project: “I want to thank him for the many years of constant support and the interest he gives to new communication media.”

Patriarchal adviser Aurelian Iftimiu, the director of the Basilica News Agency of the Romanian Patriarchate, was invited to speak at Radio Trinitas about the 15th anniversary of online ministry. Photo: Basilica.ro / Mircea Florescu

What is the secret of communication

The secret of online communication, like communication in general, is “to know what is your relationship with God, what is your relationship with your peers and what is your relationship with yourself,” stated the director of the youngest component of the Basilica Media Center of Romanian Patriarchate.

The agency is protected by St. Demetrius the New, the protector of Bucharest, being officially established on his feast day in 2007. The first news article, however, was published on June 16, 2008, and was about celebrating the Descent of the Holy Spirit.

Among the first published news was one about the commemoration of Saint Andrew Șaguna.

“Saint Andrew Șaguna had an important media activity. He founded the Romanian Telegraph. He is even represented in the icon as holding the Romanian Telegraph newspaper, which is published until today. Saint Andrew Șaguna could also be considered a kind of protector of journalists, at least of Romanian Orthodox journalists,” Aurelian Iftimiu noted.

Constant effort and organic growth

The director of the Basilica News Agency also recalled that, 15 years ago, most Google indexing related to the Romanian Orthodox Church was negative, but over time, with much effort and perseverance, the site’s organic growth in the online environment and on social networks fixed this and balanced the image of the Church in this medium of communication.

“We grew gradually, then we had a boom, a very rapid growth, and now it’s constant growth on every platform,” he added.

“Today, when someone searches for keywords, they find links from Basilica.ro, including on Google News. Of course, other sites are also indexed, but it is a joy for us because we have not invested funds in this direction.”

Basilica.ro’s director Aurelian Iftimiu shared a few thoughts on the challenges of online ministry during a radio show on Friday, June 16, 2023. Photo: Basilica.ro / Mircea Florescu

“It’s pure work, it’s a years-long effort, and for that I want to thank my colleagues from the bottom of my heart for having the openness, for having the understanding of the importance of the role that we have to convey untruncated, clear messages that correspond to the truth,” Aurelian Iftimiu said.

“This is what the Church does and this is, of course, the direction the Basilica Media Centre is taking.”

The Basilica News Agency is part of the Basilica Media Centre, established within the Communications and Public Relations Sector of the Patriarchal Administration.

The agency’s mission is to cultivate a dynamic relationship, based on dialogue, between the Church and society, the development of the dialogue between the Church and the Orthodox youth, and the support of Christian morality and traditional Romanian values.

Since 2015, the Basilica News Agency has gradually entered social networks: