Two media conferences in the Vatican and Riyadh

Within two weeks, I have participated in two media conferences. They were geographically distant but similar in vision and outlook towards the future. I would like in this regard to merge them, as this case indicates a convergence among people, religions, and civilizations.

The first one was in the Vatican marking the 2,025th Jubilee of the birth of Lord Jesus Christ. Pope Francis, may the Lord heal him and help him resume his role as the successor of St. Peter in the Holy See, wanted to celebrate this jubilee throughout the year to incorporate special celebrations among the “categories” that make up the Church in the world.

I was fortunate to participate in the first celebrations, namely with media personnel and heads of Catholic media centers in the world. We saw participants including young journalists from 180 countries who conducted encounters and media managers. I participated in my capacity as director of the Catholic Center for Studies and Media alongside participants from the Middle East, specifically from Palestine, Iraq, and Lebanon.

The conference, which began by celebrating a Holy Mass and a meeting with Pope Francis, focused on examining pressing media issues, as well as the role of artificial intelligence in shaping  media at present and in the future, as well as the quest for a more humane service by considering that media and visual technologies are not an end in themselves, but rather a means that serve people nowadays, in addition to defending their dignity and ways to develop their daily lives.

From the Vatican, after returning to Jordan, I headed to the second conference, this time in Riyadh, the capital of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I went there just to participate and visit the grand sisterly Saudi Arabia, a trip that was not available in the past but has now become normal, natural, and a necessity.

Of course, visiting Saudi Arabia does not mean starting good relations with our brethren, as I have many friendships through the Saudi embassy in Jordan being a founding member of the Interreligious Platform for Dialogue and Cooperation in the Arab World (IPDC), which is affiliated with the King Abdullah Ibn Abdulaziz International Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID) that was established in 2011 in Vienna in partnership with Austria, the Vatican, Saudi Arabia and Spain with its headquarters moved two years ago to the Portuguese capital, Lisbon. But visiting Riyadh, and Saudi Arabia in general, made me impressed by the provided facilities and visa procedures, in addition to the huge development that Riyadh and other cities have underwent in recent years.

With regards to the conference, or the Saudi Media Forum, in which I also participated with the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Government Communication Zaid Al-Nawaiseh and  Director of the Jordan News Agency- Petra Ms. Fairouz Mobaideen, it was an opportunity to listen in the first place and to watch in the second place. It was listening to the lectures and interventions of several prominent and media personnel from the Arab world and abroad who talked about the world that is being formed and its role in the media, in  addition to watching the most prominent media technologies in the huge exhibition associated with the forum.

I met with Saudi Minister of Media Salman Al-Dosari who expressed his pleasure to see a Christian cleric in the annual forum. This is not a new event as His Beatitude Cardinal Louis Sako participated last year in one of the sessions. As for Bahraini Minister of Information Ramzan Ibn Abdullah Al-Noaimi, he said: “We do not forget the service you provided during Pope Francis' visit to Manama”. While the Yemeni Minister of Information and Culture Moammar Al-Eryani expressed his pleasure that during one of his visits to Jordan he visited the Baptism Site.

As is the way that I follow in every country all the time, I met with Jordan’s Ambassador Dr. Haitham Abu AlFoul, who is a noble representative of our wise Hashemite leadership and our dear country, Jordan, especially in the complex political circumstances that the region is currently going through, as well as through expanding the scope of cooperation and economic exchange between the two sisterly kingdoms.