Fr. Reuter Retires

MANILA, June 16, 2009-Fr James Reuter, SJ, has stepped down as the executive secretary of the CBCP's Commission on Social Communications and Mass Media (ECSCMM) after 39 years.

Early this month, the CBCP Commission has accepted the resignation of Reuter due to poor health.

During his tenure, Fr. Reuter, 93, received awards and recognition for his work in the promotion of the Catholic Church utilizing mass media.

Among those awards was the one personally given to him, "Outstanding Service to the Catholic Church in the field of Mass Media", by the late Pope John Paul II in 1981.

The pontiff cited Fr. Reuter for "courageously upholding truth, justice and integrity in Catholic communications."

He was also given what others regard as the Asian Nobel Peace Prize, the 1989 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts.

For his work in the field of communication, training a number of prominent leaders and artists in the country, Reuter was made as an "honorary citizen of the Philippines," in 1984.

Fr. Reuter began his social communications work in 1952 and has been National Office on Mass Media head since 1967 and helped linked 42 diocesan radio stations into a federation of Catholic broadcasters.

For the meantime, Catholic Media Network (CMN) President Fr. Francis Lucas will serve as the acting executive secretary of the ECSCMM.

His appointment was formally announced yesterday by ECSCMM chairman and Manila Auxiliary Bishop Bernardino Cortez.

A priest from the Prelature of Infanta, Fr. Lucas devoted most of his 35 years in the priesthood advocating social issues such as environment, agriculture and poverty alleviation through media.

He is also one of the pioneers in propagating community-based radio in Asia. (Roy Lagarde)