“Journeying as a Global Marist Family” was the motto of the First Marist International Meeting on Communication and Marketing, which was held at the General House in Rome from October 29 to November 1, 2024. Thirty-seven lay people and brothers involved in the communication of Marist life and mission participated. Representatives of each Administrative Unit, institutions and some strategic realities of the Institute were invited.
The meeting, with the participation of communication and marketing managers from various Marist institutions, has the following objectives:
The meeting was organized and coordinated by the Institute’s Department of Communication and had the support of Brothers João Carlos do Prado and Sylvain Ramandimbiarisoa, General Councilors links with the Department of Communication, and of the working groups on the various themes of the Communication Action Plan.
As a consequence of the message of the XXII General Chapter, “Journeying together as a global family”, the Strategic Plan of the General Administration for Animation, Leadership and Governance (2017-2025) was elaborated. One of the projects of this plan was entrusted to the Institute’s Communication Department: Messengers of Peace. This project is part of the “Formation for the development of networks and the Marist family, with a sense of global body”. In particular, the project seeks to “develop better internal and external communication to cultivate a sense of belonging, to overcome geographical and existential borders, and to publicize Marist mission in the wider society.” The proposed strategy was to “develop an external and internal communication plan that transmits who we are and reaches out effectively to our various stakeholders and to the wider public.” In this sense, the General Government, which promoted the elaboration of the Strategic Plan, proposed 4 initiatives:
To carry out these initiatives, the Communication Department’s Action Plan was developed with the support of the communicators of the Administrative Units since 2020 to establish strategies to achieve specific objectives in each of the areas. Four working groups were created, which in recent years have produced inherent benefits in each of the initiatives. The work of these groups was one of the focal points of the meeting held in Rome. Each group was able to present its own results in accordance with the Communications Department’s Action Plan, which was enriched with suggestions from the entire audience. In the coming weeks, the comments received will be incorporated into the documents, and these will go through a drafting team that will prepare a single document with the results of the Meeting to be shared with the Administrative Units.
According to the Action Plan of the Department of Communication, during the meetings, led by a working group on the theme of corporate image and identity, it was seen the need and opportunity to have a unified institutional corporate image at the level of the whole Institute, by means of a logo that clearly represents, throughout the world, the face of the Marist mission. This Action Plan’s initiative was also presented to the General Council, that proposed some guidelines for the work of the team dedicated to the reflection and discernment of this theme, advised by experts in the sector. In 2023, the Agência Libre, from Brazil, was contracted to support the Communications Department in this area. The Communication and Marketing Meeting was an important stage in this ongoing process, which involves, in a special way, the people who are at the forefront of Marist communication. The participants of the meeting had the opportunity to express their thoughts on this proposal and to work together on the elements that this logo will have to translate. It was a nice work and of great commitment of all the participants. The working group hopes to propose, very soon, to the General Council a proposal for a reference logo that will identify Marist works at the global level.
In order to achieve the objectives of the meeting, the participants counted on the active presence of the General Administration, especially with the presence of Brothers Ernesto Sánchez, Superior General, Luis Carlos Gutiérrez, Vicar General, and João Carlos do Prado, General Councilor.
Br. Luiz Carlos encouraged the participants, on the first day, to be inspired to “look beyond” when speaking of “communication and marketing at the service of building the Global Marist Family” and emphasized that this need to go beyond one’s own limits is also valid for the different regions and countries. Brother Ernesto was also with the group and recalled in his speech that “the Marist Institute, from our origins with Saint Marcellin Champagnat and the first Brothers, seeks to connect with children and young people to offer them an education and evangelization that will lead them to be ‘good Christians and good citizens’”. And referring to the final document of the Synod on Synodality, he said: “I believe that one of the important means of communication with young people today is the digital world, hence the importance of taking care of it and doing it well”.
Other important interventions were those of Imma Amadeo, from the Province of L’Hermitage, and that of Jesuit priests John Dardis (assistant ad providentiam) and Chuks Afiawari (director of communications) of the Congregation. Both talks helped the participants to understand the challenges of communication and marketing in Marist life and in the life of the Church and society today.
Representatives from these three regions were invited to participate in sessions dedicated especially to them, before and after the meeting with the communicators. It was a valuable moment of exchange and creation of synergy and cooperation for the mission in these vital regions for Marist life and mission. All the Administrative Units of Asia and Oceania were present. Unfortunately, for bureaucratic reasons, the representatives of Madagascar and West Africa were unable to participate.
