Vatican's Jubilee for Journalists attracts more than 7,500

More than 7,500 journalists, including some relatives, arrived in Rome yesterday at the start of the Vatican's Jubilee for Journalists which continues until Sunday.

Welcoming journalists from all over the world, Archbishop John Foley, president of the Vatican's Council for Social Communications, said when the idea for such a jubilee was mooted, they expected about 800 journalists, including relatives, to attend.

They had been overwhelmed by the response and had to appeal to an American Catholic Church charity to assist with costs, he said. Due to "the invasion of journalists which Rome is now experiencing" it was necessary to arrange for yesterday's proceedings to be broadcast by closed circuit television to other venues in the Vatican where overflow numbers were watching.

The gathering was addressed by Ms Theresa Ee-Chooi, president of the International Catholic Press Union, on "The Church at a dawn of the third millennium, a challenge for communicators". The journalists then went to the Sistine Chapel for an "Invitation to Prayer".

This morning the journalists will be addressed by Cardinal Dario Hoyos, Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, on Truth and Witness.

On Saturday there will be an ecumenical celebration presided over by Cardinal Edward Cassidy, president of the Vatican Council for Promoting Christian Unity and on Sunday there will be an audience for the journalists with Pope John Paul.

In her address, Ms Ee-Chooi said journalism could be seen as a genuine vocation, a calling, a service which Christians and humanity appreciated.

It played an essential role in society, she said, but pointed out that respect for the truth could at times require silence in instances where demands of charity and justice overrode the public right to know.

"Truth cannot be used to wreck peoples' lives", she said and in addition to truth journalists had to consider the good. Freedom of the press did not sanction moral anarchy and untimely dissemination of facts could do more harm than good. She instanced examples involving court cases and sometimes government decisions.

"Transparency should be the ideal but is not always possible or desirable," she said. It also demanded an extremely high degree of integrity, fairness and wisdom on the part of the journalist. She emphasised the continuing role of print journalism in an electronic age. She quoted Pope John Paul saying that Christian humanism was the foundation of Christian social doctrine and said that a Catholic journalist should never say or do anything which conflicted with the values and vision of the Gospels.