In Canada, intensive summer seminar trains journalists to report Catholic news

In an era of remote work, particularly for writers and journalists, Laura Ieraci says the “newsroom experience” is markedly beneficial for those learning how to report.

At this year’s Canadian Catholic News’ “God in the City: Catholic Journalism Summer Seminar,” taking place Aug. 9–15 in Toronto, the students are given just that opportunity.

A newsroom lets students learn “how we really learn from each other and build off each other’s ideas and resourcefulness and creativity to help each other along and really get the best stories that we can,” Ieraci said.

A veteran Catholic journalist with more than two decades of experience, Ieraci serves as the founding coordinator of the intensive one-week seminar, which launched in 2025.

The program grew out of online classes starting in 2023. A group of students and instructors in that program met at a bar one night where one student remarked: “Wouldn’t it be great if we could have classes like this in person?”

“That’s where we decided we would try to do that,” Ieraci said.

The weeklong course is held in the largest city in Canada. “The reason we call it ‘God in the City’ is because the participants have to go out in the…