- Wants online evangelisation treated as a matter of urgency to meet the youth
- Enjoins Christians to not only use the media, but evangelise it
Parishes and Dioceses of the Catholic Church have been advised to take advantage of the phenomenal reach of the Social Media and other tech platforms as evangelism and pastoral tools, noting that it could be criminal for a Diocese to exist without a print or electronic media. This appeal was made by An drew Fuanya Nkea, Archbishop of Bamenda, Cameroon; President, National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon; and Member of Council for the Synod of Bishops at the recently-held conference of the Pan African Episcopal Committee for Social Communications (CEPACS) in commemoration of its 50th anniversary at Lumen Christi Television Network, Lagos, Nigeria. Speaking on the topic, “Communicating with courage and parrhesia: Pathways to promoting Christian witness through an authentic style of communication within our ecclesial communities,” Archbishop Fuanya Nkea observed that most Priests and Bishops are yet to embrace the social media for spreading the gospels.
The prelate stressed that the print, electronic and social media present Priests and Bishops a great opportunity to fulfil the mission of the Church. “There are many Priests and Bishops who are not either on Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp and other new media connectivities. Those who are on these networks hardly even see it as a new and great opportunity to proclaim the Good News. “In some Parishes, there are hardly Newsletters, and where these exist, they are not up to standard. A good number of the dioceses in sub-Saharan Africa still have to arise from the lethargy which is not alert to what is happening in the media world. Today, it would be criminal for a diocese to exist without a Radio or Newspaper and where possible a Television. Archbishop Fuanya urged the Bishops in Africa to invest in the right media gadgets for diocesan media houses and engage well trained full-time personnel to manage them.
He explained, “These structures cost much but when effectively used, their impact can never be measured. What a well-prepared programme on the Radio and TV can do in a matter of minutes, would probably be more than what 10 Priests can do in one week. With just one message on WhatsApp, facebook, Twitter or Instagram, we encounter thousands of youth who are difficult to rally at any one centre. “This means that each Bishop must be ready to train personnel and acquire the right equipment for diocesan media houses. Sometimes, when these are trained, they are hardly given full time appointment, as if communication were just a pass-time. No, today, we need Priests and Religious who are well trained media specialists and who are given full time ministry in this respect. “The truth of Faith has not changed, but the people in our Parishes and Dioceses are living in a new world, an environment where science and technology are introducing new realities.
So, the Church must be part of this new environment, ready to interpret the signs of time and to announce the Gospel in a language that has meaning for its people.” According to him the internet has become a great tool for evangelistic tool, particularly for the youths. “Today most of our young people, perhaps even a good majority of our adults, are online and dedicate a lot of time in cyberspace. So, this is the privileged platform where to meet them and proclaim the good news. Online evangelisation is therefore to be understood as using digital technology such as social media, the internet, and our phones to meet the needs of others and share the Gospel with those online. Conversations today, great encounters and relationships are created today in social media networks. “
Hence, Bishops, Priests and Religious must see it as a matter of urgency to meet the youth in these available mobile utilities. We prepare pithy but deeply meaningful material, with pictures that speak. In this way, we are time effective and we touch more people within minutes than when we wait for them to come to Church on Sunday. “To do this, every diocese must invest in the formation of personnel in new media and online evangelisation. The youth will evangelise their peers better if they are convinced themselves. We train personnel not only for the use of what is available, but in the critical approach to media, their methods and approaches.” Most Rev. Fuanya, therefore, called on Christians to communicate the Gospel to the whole world with courage and parrhesia via the media as witnesses of Christ in an authentic style.
He explained, “The word “authentic” suggests something or someone who is genuine. With so many discordant voices today, each using the media as best as they can, our method of proclamation must be orthodox, unadulterated and original because we are proclaiming not just a Message but a Person, as we were taught ourselves. “We hand over the deposit of faith unadulterated as it was handed over to us by the Apostles, from Christ Jesus Himself. Jesus Christ is God-MadeMan; God is truth; therefore, there must be no counterfeit or deception in what we teach and the way we go about it. Our mission is to make disciples of all the nations, of all the people, so that everyone in each ecclesial community can be seen as part of the People of God.”
To emphasise his assertion on proclaiming the Gospel via media, he advised that CEPACS should be transformed into a network of Catholic Media in various countries and implored the Pan African Episcopal Committee for Social Communications to draw up a strategic plan from this Golden Jubilee celebration and look for practical outlets on how to concretely influence Catholic media all over Africa to create a synergy of action and approach to New Evangelisation in a digital society. “Only when we would have done our internal cleansing, can we hope for real change,” he stressed.
