Rome, Mar. 07, 2006 (CNA) - A three-day conference in Rome promises to address timely issues and effective approaches in Church communications

The conference, scheduled April 27-29, is entitled Strategic Management of Church Communications: New Challenges, New Directions

Simultaneous translation into English or Italian (as need be) will be offered. The conference will be held at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, which is operated by Opus Dei. The president of the conference organizing committee is Opus Dei spokesperson Marco Carroggio. It is the fifth professional seminar for Church communications offices organized by Holy Cross.

The conference will hold sessions on: key principles for managing Church communications offices; presenting the Magisterium in a mass-media world; framing, news values and the Catholic Church; how to respond to news in a post-Christian environment; the media's agenda vs. the Church's agenda; religion coverage in the secular and Catholic media.

Three case studies will be considered: the Church in Italy and the 2005 referendum on in-vitro fertilization, the Church in the United States after the sex-abuse crisis, and the relevance of the Church in today's debates.

Two panels are also organized on the experiences of Church communicators and on how to encourage more than superficial coverage of religion news.

Among the speakers are Archbishop Angelo Amato, secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Vatican Press Office director Joaquin Navarro-Valls. Archbishop John Foley, president of the Pontifical Council of Social Communications will celebrate mass.