RADIO -TV AND C.F.I. MERGER

£30,000 studio 'in 18 months' Catholic Herald Reporter FAR-REACHING developments affecting the whole future of Catholic work in Britain in the field of mass communication are revealed meetings of the Hierarchy of Scottish Hierarchy. this week following recent England and Wales and the
A statement issued on Tuesday from the Catholic Radio and Television Centre at Hatch End, Middlesex, announces that the Centre has had its scope widened and will now include the cinema.
The Catholic Film Institute and St. Gabriel's, the Catholic Radio and Television Centre have been amalgamated under the direction of Fr. Agnellus Andrew, O.F.M., director of the Centre since it was founded eight years ago.
The Centre will be renamed the National Catholic Centre for Radio, Television and Cinema. Offices are to be run in London and Glasgow.
HELPERS
To help Fr. Agnellus the English Bishops have appointed Fr. John Stapleton as Ecclesiastical Assistant for Radio and TV, and Fr. J. A. V. Burke as Ecclesiastical Assistant for the Cinema. The Scottish Bishops have appointed Fr. Hugh McKay, O.F.M. for Radio and TV and Fr. Brendan Murphy for the cinema in Scotland. Fr. John Bebb is also to increase his active co-operation.
Plans are also well in hand for the building of a large studio in the London area to provide facilities both for the making of Catholic films and television programmes and for training priests and laymen for work in TV and the cinema.
This project has become more urgent because of the increasing demands of the developing countries in Africa and South America whose Bishops need both readymade programmes for new TV stations and also trained personnel to superintend Catholic work.
The intention. Fr. Agnellus told me this week, is "to build up eventually a large library of professionally produced tapes and films which we can hire or lend free of charge. Only a few weeks before Holy Week we were being asked for the loan of suitable recordings", be remarked, "but there was little we could do about it".
The Hierarchies of England and Wales and of Scotland have made a large initial grant towards the studio which, Fr. Agnellus said, would probably cost something in the region of £30,000. The Centre has a little money carefully saved for this project which Fr. Agnellus described as "a new form of missionary enterprise", but many thousands are still needed. And equipment must be bought.
It is hoped to have the studio built and open inside eighteen months.
Fr. Luke, Faupel, O.F.M.. administrator at St. Gabriel's and National Director of the LookListen Movement plans a series of conferences to enable many more people to play a part in these new developments.
Fr. Agnellus paid tribute to the work done by the Knights of St. Columba who took over the Catholic Film Institute, at the request of the Bishops, some years ago. During this period the work has developed greatly and a number of new features introduced including the annual Joint TV/ Cinema Conference and Film Festival in London. Collaboration between the Knights and the Centre will continue.