Institute for Pastoral Initiatives News

It all began with an overhead projector and a TV-VCR combo. 

Now in its 28th year, the Caribbean School for Catholic Communication (CSCC) is co-sponsored by the Institute for Pastoral Initiatives and co-directed by Sister Angela Ann Zukowski, MHSH, D.Min, and Lisa Bhajan, the station manager for the Trinidad-based Trinity Communications Network.

The mission of CSCC is to support dioceses and parishes in the Caribbean Islands for developing social media pastoral plans and developing social media skills for advancing the mission of the Catholic Church with participants receiving CEU’s from the university’s Institute upon completing the week-long program.

“One of CSCC’s main objectives is to introduce participants to the practical skills of pastoral communications planning, to spark the religious imagination of our parishes, dioceses and local communities," Bhajan said. “Our course aims to open up the pathways of connectivity, linking the ideas into script, creative storyboards and giving participants some online tools for short-form production."

Forty-eight people completed the virtual CSCC in August. This year’s theme, Connecting the Docs, focused on understanding and communicating Pope Francis’ Encyclical Fratelli Tutti (On Fraternity and Social Friendship) through diverse social media resources and the need for Catholic communicators to be in sync with the thinking and teaching of the documents of the Church.

The CSCC has been held virtually since COVID hit in 2020. The week ended with a celebration of the productions and closing comments by the Archbishop of Port of Spain, Charles Jason Gordon.

The Caribbean School for Catholic Communication began in 1994. It was the result of Sister Angela Ann receiving an invitation from former Archbishop Anthony Patin to assist in designing an Archdiocesan Pastoral Communications Plan. For more information about programs supported by the Institute, visit our website.