This past week Catholic communicators from around the world gathered in Quebec City, Canada for the SIGNIS world congress and the Catholic Media Conference put on by the Catholic Press Association of the US and Canada.
During the conference, the Catholic Academy of Communication Professionals hosted its 52nd annual Gabriel Awards to recognize the best in broadcast journalism for film, radio, cable network, cable television and social media that promote human dignity and artistic achievement with “a true vision of humanity.”
The Gabriel Personal Achievement Award is sponsored by Family Theater Productions and given in honor of their founder, Father Patrick Peyton, CSC. They have been given to producers, directors, performers, writers, critics and executives who bring a high standard of media excellence and beauty to the human experience.
This year’s 2017 Gabriel Personal Achievement award went to our own Sr. Rose Pacatte, FSP for her years of work in Media Literacy Education, founding the Pauline Center for Media Studies, her film review columns for National Catholic Reporter and Saint Anthony Messenger, the INdustry with Sr. Rose by Loyola Productions, as well as her extensive work in film criticism, practical theology and faith formation in the media culture. She is author of numerous books on faith and film and media education, but also on the life of actor Martin Sheen and her newest book Corita Kent: Gentle Revolutionary of the Heart (2017, Liturgical Press). She has been promoting values-centered media her entire religious life (50 years) and continues to be an inspiration to those who integrate the popular culture with religious experience.
Sr. Rose has been an active member of the Catholic Academy for over thirty years and follows in the line of other illustrious awardees, such as Roma Downey and Mark Burnett, Gary Sinise, Betty White, Kevin James, Art Linkletter, Fr. Ellwood Kieser, CSP, Walter Cronkite, and so many more. The prestigious Gabriel Awards highlight the creativity of media professionals who promote the truth, beauty and goodness of God in their work. The award is a silver statue of the Angel Gabriel who raises a globe skyward that is bejeweled with electrons that represent the communication of God’s Word to all of humanity. It is in that communication that the Academy recognizes those who through the media enrich the world and challenge audiences to discover the richness of what it truly means to be human.
Our congratulations to Sr. Rose for this prestigious award and for being a communicator of hope and peace in a world that seeks so desperately, in the midst of multiple voices vying for attention, for those heralds of God’s love, light and truth!
About the Author
Sr. Nancy is the Director of the Pauline Center for Media Studies and a Media Literacy Education Specialist. She has degrees in Communications Arts and a Masters in Theology and the Arts from Fuller Theological Seminary. She has extensive experience in the creative aspects of social media, print media, radio and video production as well as in marketing, advertising, retail management and administration.
Sr. Nancy has given numerous media mindfulness workshops, presentations and film retreats around the country to youth, young adults, catechists, seminarians, teachers and media professionals helping to create that dialogue between faith and media. She is a member of NAMLE (National Association of Media Literacy Educators), SIGNIS (World Catholic Association for Communicators) and THEOCOM (Theology and Communications in Dialogue) and board member of CIMA (Catholics in Media Associates). She is the author of a theology of popular culture called, A Sacred Look: Becoming Cultural Mystics from Wipf & Stock Publishing. Sr. Nancy is a theologian, national speaker, blogger and film reviewer.