"This study presents the results of research into the media's capacity to carry religious messages. It is based on a qualitative content analysis of original texts inspired by religious motives in Slovak Catholic and secular press. The main focus is the messages as such, related topoi (bases for arguments) and their epiphenomena. The study focuses on the topoi and seeks an answer to the following key question: What ‘common ideas’ (in Greek topoi) do mass-media messages and religious messages refer to? Based on the comparison of the topoi of original religious messages and messages covered by media, the study concludes that the key topoi of religious messages and of media messages resulting from it differ significantly. The difference in topoi arises mainly from a different pre-understanding –that is, attitude of faith / absence of faith in a journalist, and the related trust / distrust of the church. Apart from basic personal predispositions, the study points to a number of important factors such as comprehensibility, attitude on the capacity of mass media to evangelize, compliance with journalistic form, understanding of the role of news values (conflict in particular), and level of religiousness of the language used in massmedia communication. Finally, the study offers several recommendations and outlines the challenges faced by church and secular media communicators." (Abstract)