Southern Nebraska Register
Dennis Kellogg, director of communications for the Diocese of Lincoln, has been selected to attend the Diocesan Communicator Symposium June 4-7 in St. Louis.
Invitations to the event were extended to communicators in 11 dioceses located in 10 different states.
“I appreciate the opportunity to meet with diocesan communicators from across the country and share best practices on how we can work to bring Catholics closer to Jesus and the Church,” Kellogg said.
The training program is based on a similar one, the Institute for Religious Communication (IRC), that was started in the 1990s by the late Archbishop Philip Hannan of New Orleans. Steve Mamanella, one of the coordinators of the training who is with KP Consulting Group, said the program is designed “to address the new and unique challenges contemporary diocesan communicators face in a digital world.”
Mamanella noted Pope Francis has said the revolution taking place in communications and media represents “a great and thrilling challenge,” and he has encouraged the Church to respond “with fresh energy and imagination as we seek to share with others the beauty of God.”
Mamanella said that in the present moment the need for well-equipped and well-formed diocesan communicators is so important.
“We see cultural trends and demographic data pointing to an evolution from an era of Christendom – where Christianity often has been taken for granted as the dominant cultural mindset – to the dawning of what some are describing as a “new apostolic age” in which diocesan communicators will play an increasingly important role in helping the Church evangelize. Through our Symposium, we want to ensure that diocesan communicators have the tools to do so most effectively.”
The symposium is being offered at no cost to the dioceses, thanks to a grant from the Knights of Columbus.
“We proposed it to the Knights of Columbus because we recognized that the Knights place a strong emphasis on evangelization,” Mamanella said. “The Knights of Columbus kindly agreed to fund the effort, which means that we can offer our program at no cost to attendees, just like the old IRC.”
Kellogg, who spent 35 years in broadcast journalism before joining the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln last July, said the training will include external communications planning and execution, effective internal communications within the diocese and best practices in digital communication.
“We have a great and hard-working communications team in place. We’re always discussing ways to make the Southern Nebraska Register, our website, our social media channels and all of our communication efforts more effective and efficient,” Kellogg said. “This will be another opportunity to learn from peers and bring back ideas to help us continue to improve and better serve Southern Nebraska Catholics.”
