Reporting about the Catholic Church is not easy: the journalists that cover the Vatican often have only a few words to explain complex issues that require special preparation.

That’s why a university in Rome is offering a course for journalists interested in specializing in covering religion.

Manuel Sánchez
Pontifical University of the Holy Cross 

This isn’t a course thought to speak about the Church in an apologetic way, instead it gives information on the Church from a professional, informative and very scientific point of view. It  is definitely very academic.

Among the topics that will be covered this year are: the historicity of the Gospels, inter-religious dialogue and the relationship between Church and Science.

Manuel Sánchez
Pontifical University of the Holy Cross 
For example, we talk about the Church and nature, the economic crisis seen from a Christian point of view, the structure of the roman curia and the moral structure of the Church when covering issues related to sexual ethics.

The initiative was born in 2006 at the request of journalists and "vaticanists" covering the Vatican.

Andrés Beltramo Álvarez
Correspondent, Notimex 
It shows how important it is to be up to date because the Holy See is the religious source, and although is ancient it’s in constant dynamism, thus forcing us to learn, study in depth and find new points of reference
to work more professionally.

The ideal way to inform about the Catholic Church, as one of the participants says, is through in-depth study and by keeping close contact with the people that really know it.

DG