ALL ABOUT ZENIT
The nature of ZENIT and its mission
ZENIT is a non-profit international news agency comprising a team of professionals and volunteers who are convinced of the extraordinary richness of the Catholic Church's message, particularly its social doctrine. The ZENIT team sees this message as a light for understanding today's world.
At the same time, we are aware that this richness is little known in the information world. This motivates us to strive to bring this message to the Internet, in the greatest possible number of languages.
Our objective is to inform about the "world seen from Rome," with professionalism and faithfulness to the truth. We aim to view the modern world through the messages of the Pope and the Holy See; tell about the happenings of the Church; and inform about the topics, debates and events that are especially interesting to Christians worldwide. ZENIT carries out this service independently.
Range of news
Our information service focuses on a range of news, primarily:
- The activities of the Pope: apostolic trips, documents, meetings with heads of states and social, cultural and religious figures. We give particular emphasis to the activities of the Holy Father and his addresses.
- Interviews with men and women of the Church, and political and social figures featuring topics of special interest.
- The current international scene, with special emphasis on questions relevant to Christians and the life of the Catholic Church.
- The activities of the Holy See, including diplomatic efforts, humanitarian initiatives and cultural events.
- Social, political and religious topics at the center of public debate. Special attention is given to themes related to the defense of life and the family, social justice, bioethics, euthanasia, abortion, contraception, respect of human rights and religious freedom.
The team
Our team is made up of writers and editors, translators, technical staff and administrators. All are committed to making their best effort in offering ZENIT their professional collaboration or volunteer services.
Staffers come from a variety of spiritualities in the Church. Some are religious or consecrated men and women, others are lay people who come from Church groups, both young and ancient (Franciscan and Ignatian spiritualities, Opus Dei, communities from the Charismatic Renewal, Regnum Christi, the Teresian Institute, or parish leaders). Others are committed Catholics with no particular affiliation. Several married couples work for ZENIT.
ZENIT is promoted by the religious congregation of the Legionaries of Christ. Two Legionary priests offer consultation services and collaborate in writing the "Analysis" and "Liturgy" columns.
Here, you can meet the ZENIT team.
The agency also relies on a worldwide network of people who regularly or occasionally collaborate. These include communication directors of bishops' conferences or dioceses, as well as professors.
ZENIT does not have offices in a particular location; instead, our office is the Internet. This enables us to reduce costs, and allows people from any corner of the planet to collaborate with our information agency.
ZENIT's audience
ZENIT began in 1997 and now publishes in seven languages: Spanish, English, French, German, Portuguese, Italian and Arabic.
ZENIT news is reprinted by some 20,000 media sources.
Currently, some 520,000 subscribers receive ZENIT's information service directly to their e-mail. Hundreds of thousands of people consult ZENIT articles at our Web page and other Internet sites.
The origin of the name "ZENIT"
For the first Christians, basing themselves in biblical prophesies, the sun was one of the symbols of Christ. Early Christians even gave him titles like the "sun of justice." For the date of Christmas, they chose December 25, the feast of the sun, the ancient celebration par excellence, the date of winter solstice that represented the annual triumph of the sun over the darkness. Christians tried to see the world with the eyes of Christ, from the highest point that the sun reaches, the "zenith," or in many languages, "zenit."
This also explains our logo: the rainbow, symbol of God's covenant with humanity, despite the dark vicissitudes of human infidelity. The rainbow reminds us that the love of God is greater than evil, and it stirs hope in the midst of this undertaking to spread information about the challenges faced by the Church and the world.
Distribution policy
You can freely access ZENIT news at this site, making use of our search engine and our indexed archive. You can also receive ZENIT by e-mail or by RSS.
ZENIT for personal use is free.
Those who would like ZENIT for professional use (information services and organizations) can refer to the fees for this use as well as reprint permissions.
Given that our priority is spreading information, we are willing to negotiate fees and adapt to each situation.
Media sources that use ZENIT are varied. They include television and radio stations, newspapers and magazines, Web pages, diocesan and parish bulletins, and newsletters.
We try to make it possible for every media source or organization to receive and use our articles, even in situations where the full fee cannot be paid.
Growth and financing
Our readers have an essential role in the life and development of ZENIT. Readers use our information services for personal use without any cost and sustain the agency with their donations.
Our readers are the primary agents both in the economic support and in the promotion of ZENIT.
The readers' role is given special emphasis during two annual campaigns directed to all friends of ZENIT. One campaign proposes that each reader supports ZENIT economically, according to his possibilities. The other invites each reader to send gift subscriptions to the greatest possible number of family members and friends who may be interested in receiving our news service.
Thanks to the enthusiastic support of thousands of readers, ZENIT has been able to grow in an impressive way since its start in 1997.
And for seven years now, reader donations have enabled ZENIT to operate entirely in the black, even as it undertook new projects.
In ZENIT's first first three years, important donations from the group Aid to the Church in Need, the Italian bishops' conference and the Legionaries of Christ enabled the agency to grow. In the following years, 90% of the annual budged has been covered by reader donations.
The sale of reprinting rights to media sources that faithfully pay the fees agreed upon in their contracts, together with select advertising, covers the remaining 10%.
At this site, you can consult our annual budget.
Truly, ZENIT is an agency that stays alive because its readers sustain it!
Prizes and awards
ZENIT has won various international prizes and awards.
Since its beginning, ZENIT has received the support of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. You can read the March 31, 1998, message to readers written by the president of that dicastery, Archbishop John Foley. And since ZENIT's first day, it has been a member of the Red Informática de la Iglesia en Ámerica Latina (Information Network of the Church in Latin America), an institution which is promoted by the Pontifical Council for Social Communications and the Latin American bishops' council.
The numerous messages sent to our editors each day, some of which can be seen on the "testimonies" page, give a clear sense of ZENIT's impact in the world.
Publisher
ZENIT belongs to Innovative Media, Inc., a non-profit organization based in New York, which is the editor and publisher of the agency.
Innovative Media, Inc. carries out its activity directly or in collaboration with: "Fundación ZENIT España" in Spain, "Association ZENIT" in France, "ZENIT eV" in Germany, "Asociacao ZENIT" in Brazil. All are non-profit organizations in their respective countries.
We invite you to get to know ZENIT better by clicking on the links at the right of this page.
Happy reading!
The ZENIT team
