AMERICA/BRAZIL – “Fake news, religion and politics”: online course to fight misinformation and strengthen commitment to truth

Brasilia (Agenzia Fides) – “Developing the ability to verify information, exercising the Christian attitude of spreading the truth and forming a network of information verifiers in the Church”: this is the objective of the course in “Fake News, Religion and Politics” line to be held from August 8 to 12, from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., promoted by the Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral of Communication, by the Communication Service of the Episcopal Conference (CNBB) and by the Pastoral of Communication (Pascom-Brazil), in collaboration with other realities involved in this area. According to the note sent to Agenzia Fides, the free training foresees 300 participants and will take place on the Zoom platform. It was promoted taking into account the substantial increase in the dissemination of false news (fake news), in order to provide adequate training for pastoral communication agents and other pastoral movements and various organs of the Church. The Auxiliary Bishop of Rio de Janeiro and Secretary General of the CNBB, Monsignor Joel Portella Amado, underlines: “we are frightened by various situations of our time, present in the world and, of course, also in Brazil. Among these is the spread of so-called fake news.” According to the Bishop, it is a phenomenon which, in order to weaken people and society, must be identified, understood and vehemently rejected. Commitment to the truth is, without doubt, a Christian requirement, but “it concerns all men, whatever their faith, because when we renounce the truth, we also renounce our human condition”. social groups that today use false information to produce disinformation and build false narratives about history, human beings and the truth of facts, with the clear objective of hurting people and destabilizing democracy, observes the auxiliary bishop of Belo Horizonte and president of the Episcopal Communication Commission of the CNBB, Monsignor Joaquim Giovani Mol. “As Christians, our duty is to always seek the truth and correct information based on real data. are. Our pastoral duty is to combat and prevent the spread of misinformation and to strengthen our commitment to the truth.” Pascom-Brazil coordinator Marcus Tullius says the desire is to move towards strengthening a network of Catholic pastoral agents capable of monitoring and dealing with this complex phenomenon of fake news.”The partners in the realization of this initiative have embraced the cause, because we are convinced that we must fight against disinformation and this is done with well-trained people. It is a very difficult task, but, echoing Pope Francis, we reaffirm that we must believe in the “contagious” power of benevolence. It is a first step, but it is significant for the context in which we live “.
Among the topics that will be addressed by qualified speakers: Democracy and disinformation; Truth and religion: Christian commitment: methods of verification; Verification tools and techniques; Proposals to combat misinformation. (SL) (Agenzia Fides, 07/22/2022)

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