Most Rev. Emmanuel Adetoyese Badejo, Bishop of Catholic Diocese of Oyo has enjoined Catholics to leverage digital tools to promote the gospel and Christian values, emphasising the need for people to be digital missionaries playing their respective roles in digital missions in the days succeeding ‘Mission Sunday’. The prelate’s statement came on the heels of the 96th Mission Sunday, celebrated on October 20, 2024, with the theme, “Go and invite everyone to the banquet” (cf. Mt. 22:9).
Commending digital missionaries who vigorously promoted the gospel in the digital space, Bishop Badejo noted that many Catholics expended more energy in physical activities to promote the mission than on the social media and digital space. Consequently, the Catholic Bishop of Oyo Diocese charged the youths and other digital inhabitants to deliberately be more committed in promoting the Gospel and Christian values online. He shared a recent development on Mission Sunday in the Vatican. “For that same purpose, in the Vatican, on the afternoon of Sunday October 20 2024, thousands of digital missionaries who had been proclaiming the Gospel online met virtually and in person with Vatican officials who encouraged them in their service to the Church. “
At the meeting, Msgr. Ruiz, Secretary of the Dicastery for Communication announced the upcoming Jubilee for Missionaries and Catholic Digital Influencers, which will be held on July 28- 29, 2025, just ahead of the Jubilee for Youth. “The digital missionaries and influencers were also encouraged to “Go and invite everyone to the banquet,” according to the theme of Mission Sunday. They were urged to abandon their own comfort zones, to bear witness to Christian joy. They were invited to ensure that they never seek to create cliques, but rather to engage with “the dust of the road and the mud of history.”
“The Prefect of the Dicastery for Communications, Dr. Paolo Ruffini also urged them to take responsibility for the wounds afflicting our modern society and to do their part in healing them.” Continuing, he noted, “Such beautiful dreams and words cannot fail to influence and drive the activity of our African, digital-savvy faithful as well in these demanding times.” The prelate urged everyone who has a phone to be a digital missionary. In his words, “In fact, everyone who owns a cell phone can become a digital missionary, offering the beauty of Christianity to the whole nation, continent and the world. Time is now overdue for every Christian to deliberately overwhelm the vices and evil in this world with messages of God’s goodness and Christian values. “
The clear positive message of the ongoing synodality period is that we must overwhelm war with peace and always seek communion over division and discrimination. This, in fact, is the agenda which our digital missionaries must pursue. With the almost limitless reach of the digital tools available to our youth for example, they can become the salt and leaven of our world to counter the satanic, fake and misleading messages that rupture the peace, solidarity and communion all around us and rather spread good news in this world that is so starved of it.” Bishop Badejo further noted that it’s time to change the thinking that borders on ‘Missions’ as he called on digital missionaries to take charge in their respective parishes, communities, families and circle of friends utilising their digital tools.
He stressed, “Thus, now that specific Mission Sunday activities are done with, let the digital missionaries take over in our parishes, communities, families and circle of friends. “Everybody using a cell phone must know that in the cell phones they carry, they have all the tools they need to be effective, apart from their witness of life. This is especially important for us Africans in our continent where there are an estimated 650 million mobile phone users. “Smart phone is also growing in number, although with much less penetration. Most of these phones are in the hands of teenagers and young adults who are already driving change in many ways, especially in the political, economic, educational and entertainment realms. “You can imagine what power exists here for evangelisation and transmission if Christians among them take the responsibility for changing the world and their country for the better.”
