The National Director of Social Communications, Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN), Very Rev. Fr. (Dr.) Michael Umoh has urged his fellow pastors to see occasions of weddings, funerals, child dedications, and birthday anniversaries Masses as golden opportunities for evangelisation and re-evangelisation in the Church. While delivering a lecture at the 100th anniversary of Bigard Memorial Major Seminary, Enugu, held recently in the institution, Fr. Umoh noted that these occasions present special moments for the Church to reach out to both non-Catholics and lapsed Catholics alike.
According to Fr. Umoh, it is during such events that non-Catholics and lapsed Catholics accompany their family and friends to the Church. “These people are not likely to come to Church on Sunday or Holy Days of obligations. But they are more likely to honour the invitation of their family members, friends, neighbours or office colleagues during weddings, funeral of a loved one, child dedication or birthday thanksgivings, and the like. The manner of our liturgy therefore markets or de-markets the Church. We must develop pastoral eyes to see opportunities to cast the net, and the zeal to do the needful” he urged. According to him, “Unfortunately, we often do not seem to pay enough attention to these very special opportunities that present to us with some form of captive audience.
These are not moments we should open our liturgy to distracting experiments or adventures; not moments to allow strangers like the wedding couples or children of the deceased mount the lectern to take the readings. Rather, they are occasions we should strive to consciously celebrate spirit-filled liturgy by allowing only commissioned lectors to read and feature the best of our liturgical ministers and well-trained choristers. Such moments behooves of the priests to prepare adequately and deliver inspiring homily that touches the heart.”
On the topic, “Emerging media and religion: Harnessing the digital media for new evangelisation in the Catholic Church in Nigeria,” the National Communications Director, noted that the digital media presents numerous opportunities for evangelisation and community building in the Church. He proposed that a standard message of “Welcome back home” program can be included in the inside front page of all liturgical brochures, inviting persons interested in returning to the fold to call some numbers and express their intentions. “These implies the need for a clearly defined programme and a committee of well-trained pastoral agents who will be available to courteously guide the willing ‘returnees’ back to the fold.
The Digital media enhances this vision, since the programme may be diocesan-based, instead of leaving it to each parish,” he said. Fr. Umoh advocated that any conversation on New Evangelisation in Nigeria currently should focus on key areas such as Youth Apostolate, addressing secularisation and the loss of the sense of the sacred, combating neo-paganism, and creating easy channels for lapsed Catholics to return to the Church. He added that these considerations will give birth to a new generation of Catholics, embodying the spirit of missionary discipleship as advocated by Pope Francis. To improve communication in parish communities, Fr. Umoh recommended strategies, including effective signages, good sound systems, dedicated parish phone lines, proper use of parish bulletins and other publications, and the need to train and retrain all liturgical ministers.
