On Wednesday, 12 September, the General Curia hosted a one-day meeting for the communications directors of all the European Provinces of the Order, the General Curia, Tiber Island, the Spanish Interprovincial Commission and the Hospitality Europe office.

The meeting had been promoted by the Order’s Europe Commission in response to a strategic need that had been voiced during this Sexennium by the Major Superiors, particularly in order to enhance synergies and the coordination of the Hospitaller Order’s communications at the European level.

More than ever before, communications are constantly and unpredictably developing, driven both by technological developments in the media and the new forms in which the media are being used. During the Sexennium a number of particular events occurred (such as the Ebola epidemic in West Africa) which put the Hospitaller Order in the international limelight as a result of exceptional media pressure. It was on these issues and the ways in which communications could be improved that the 12 participants in the meeting exchanged their ideas, news and documents.

The first part of the meeting was a first round of individual presentations of the structure and the tools used by the individual Provinces for communications. This was followed by a debate which produced various proposals and suggestions to ensure regular, rapid information and news-sharing between the European Provinces.  

The conclusions of the meeting will be illustrated at the next meeting of the Order’s Europe Commission on 22 September, at the General Curia.

Everyone expressed satisfaction and confidence as a result of the meeting, particularly the President of the European Commission, Brother Rudolf Knop, and the team who had organised it at the request of the European Commission (Brother Alain-Samuel Jeancler, Antoine Soubrier, Adiana Castro and Carlo Galasso).