Australian Jesuit to Head Asian Catholic News

(October 17, 2008) Australian Jesuit Michael Kelly has been appointed as the new director of the Bangkok-based Union of Catholic Asian News (UCAN), the largest Catholic news service in Asia. The agency, launched in 1979, aims to provide information on the Catholic Church and Catholic concerns in the Asian region. Since inception Maryknoll Father Robert Astorino directed it. Father Kelly told Jesuit website that he was “looking forward to learning and sharing," in directing the Asia-wide networked agency based in Bangkok. Fr Kelly will be sharing his time between Australia and Bangkok next year, as he continues in his roles for the Australian Jesuit Province and for Church Resources while taking over the direction of the Union of Catholic Asian News group. Australian Provincial Fr Steve Curtin has made Fr Kelly available for the new role from January 1 2009. He congratulated Fr Kelly on the appointment, which he said provides great opportunities for the proclamation of the Gospel. "There's a lot we can learn from the fastest changing region in our world, and there's a lot we can bring to it given Australia's technological developments over the last decade particularly in relation to the web," he told a Jesuit website. Asserting that Church is to reach out message of Jesus to people in a way that's relevant and applied to lives, he stressed the need of using new technologies in news operation. The Jesuit has wide-ranging experience. Since entering the Society of Jesus in 1971, Fr Kelly has worked extensively in the media, first as a journalist and then later as founder and CEO of a number of media organizations.