By PJ Usanga
The Pan African Episcopal Committee for Social Communications (CEPACS), in its resolution at the end of their 50th Anniversary celebration at Lumen Christi Retreat and Media Centre, Lagos, Nigeria, commended the Communications Week (ComWEEK) media literacy initiative of the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria, and called on Bishops within the region to design and incorporate World Communication Day/ Week as CEPACS annual programme.
“Learning from the regional associations of Catholic Bishops’ Conferences such as AMECEA and the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, design and incorporate World Communication Day/ Week as CEPACS annual programme, whose activities will be part of a framework of raising awareness, doing media literacy campaign; and fundraising for communication activities.”
At the anniversary celebration which held at from 19 – 20 November, 2023, CEPACS as part of its mandate to manage the operations of the communication apostolate in Africa, sued for a specialized training for media personnel in the local dioceses and Churches within the region. They equally propose for an adoption of appropriate digital media use as platforms for evangelizing particularly the younger generation who use online applications most of the time.
Charging all regional and national conferences to urgently engage in aggressive media literacy campaign, CEPACS, emphasised on the need for Bishops to deliberately commit resources, financially and otherwise to media development in their various dioceses.
Resolving to champion ethical discourse in traditional, modern and contemporary communication especially in new media initiatives like artificial intelligence in relevant circles, the Church communicators, equally called for the development of social communication strategies and approaches and to encouraged the dioceses to apply them in empowering all ecclesial groups.
The African Church communication vanguards, also called on the Vatican’s Dicastery for Social Communications to Identify and facilitate learning spaces for CEPACS across the globe in areas of social communication in the Church.
CEPACS which is an arm of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), urged the Catholic Bishops across Africa to invest in both human and material resources to effectively create a media field of evangelizers capable of influencing the environment and culture of modern times. They also appealed to SECAM to advance collaboration with other international church communication bodies across the continent, particularly SIGNIS and UCAP, for learning and for a wider use of social communication in addressing common issues facing the church of Christ amongst others.
The anniversary celebration with the theme: “CEPACS at 50: Towards Promoting a Synodal Church in Africa through Social Communications” had in attendance over eighty (80) participants comprising of Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, Priests, Religious, regional officials of communication along with the local and foreign partners of SECAM, and most significantly, the Prefect of the Dicastery for Social Communications, Vatican, Dr Paolo Ruffini, as well as lay communication experts.
