Rappler teams up with Catholic news group for papal visit

MANILA, Philippines – To bring you an authoritative coverage of Pope Francis’ trip to the Philippines, Rappler teamed up with Asia’s leading independent Catholic news source – the Union of Catholic Asian News (UCAN).

Through this partnership, you can read and view content from UCAN on Rappler, and vice versa, to get a comprehensive view of the Pope’s trip to the Philippines.

The partnership with UCAN boosts Rappler’s coverage of the Pope’s journey from the Vatican to Sri Lanka to the Philippines. UCAN’s correspondent in the Philippines, Joe Torres, is one of the journalists accredited to join the Pope aboard the papal plane.

Rappler contributor Roy Lagarde, also a staff writer for CBCP News, the official news service of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), is also part of the Pope’s flight.

You can view updates – in text and photos – from both Joe and Roy through a trip journal prepared by Rappler.

In this largely social media-driven coverage, Rappler is also set to publish stories and photos from teams mobilized by the Catholic Church groups and MovePH.

The 50,000-strong Youth for Christ, the youth arm of Couples for Christ, is among the citizen journalists mobilized by Rappler.

Rappler prepared its citizen journalists for the papal visit by holding a seminar-workshop in Palo, Leyte, titled “Covering Pope Francis in Eastern Visayas.” Rappler executive editor and CEO Maria Ressa and CBCP News director Msgr Pedro Quitorio spoke at this event on December 29, 2014.

Palo Archbishop John Du and the top officials of the Palo Archdiocese media office, Fathers Amadeo Alvero and Chris Militante, facilitated the seminar-workshop in Leyte.

Earlier in Manila, Rappler also conducted a social media workshop for CBCP News and its volunteers.

You can also join the People’s Coverage of the People’s Pope. Click here to see how.

Join us as we cover #PopeFrancisPH! – Rappler.com