It will be the new Catholic-inspired “Media Citadel” of the Middle East. It will be born on the initiative of “Tele Lumiere” and its corresponding satellite “NourSat”, important realities in Lebanese television. This new editorial structure will have within it the two audiovisual media giants of the Church in the Middle East, three radio stations, one newspaper, a magazine and a variety of information portals on the internet. The ceremony of placing the foundation stone took place on October 1, 2008, in the presence of the Eastern Patriarchs. The site of this new complex, donated by the Maronite Church, covers an area of 27 square kilometers.
The project is supported by the Assembly of Eastern Catholic Patriarchs, by Bishops and Superior Generals of the Lebanese Catholic communities. The new “citadel” will be in the Fatka region, in the district of Kesrwan, on one of the most beautiful mountains which looks out on the Lebanese coast over Jounieh, between Fatqa and Byblos.
The project foresees three building blocks. In the center there will be a large Church which will unite all the Christian denominations. One section will contain eight television studios, an indoor 700-seat theater, three conference halls, six multipurpose halls, one music institute and one recording studio, a center for theological research, a center for spiritual exercises, as well as facilities for workers and visitors. In the same section there will also be three satellite channels, one for “NourSat” and two for the new “Nour al-Shabab” and “Nour al-Shaq”, a library, a museum, and a center for the training and formation of new professionals in the field of communications. In a third section, 155 offices equipped with the latest technology, at the service of the Patriarchates, the dioceses, the parishes, and humanitarian institutions.
Both “Tele Lumiere” and “NourSat” transmit in Arabic, the language of the Christians in the East, but projects are planned to integrate and interweave the different experiences and sensitivities of Christians present in the area, through transmissions in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Syriac and Greek.
Born in the late ‘90s on the initiative of a group of lay faithful committed to serving the Church, “Tele Lumiere” and “NourSat” have no commercial objectives and about half the personnel are voluntary workers.
For the construction of the “media citadel” various forms of subscription were set up, including on-line, through the site www.noursat.tv

[00207-02.03] [NNNNN] [Original text: Italian]


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