Australian Jesuit Fr Michael Kelly has been appointed as director of the Bangkok-based Asian Catholic news agency, UCAN. UCAN was launched in 1979 to provide information on the Catholic Church and Catholic concerns in the Asian region. It is the largest Catholic news service in Asia and one of the biggest in the world.

“I’m looking forward to learning and sharing,” said Fr Kelly.

“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.”

As well as his experience in traditional media, Fr Kelly will bring to UCAN extensive experience in harnessing new technologies.

“The Church’s mission is to reach out to people where they are with the message of Jesus, in a way that’s relevant and applied to their lives. The access to the web for many people across Asia is through hand held devices. That represents a completely new challenge in communications, and it’s one that I look forward to exploring and responding to in coming years,” Fr Kelly said.