Kenya Church to set up a national Catholic communication network

Waumini Online News Team – Nairobi.

The Bishop of Kakamega Diocese, Joseph Obanyi, has appealed to the Church to embrace the use of social media as a strategy to reach the “altar of young people.” 

The Church needs to use media to proclaim the Word of God

The Bishop was speaking this week at the Bishop Stam Pastoral Centre in his Diocese of Kakamega when he officially opened the training of Parish Communication Agents (PCA) in Kenya. Bishop Obanyi recalled how the first African Synod in 1994 highlighted the importance of social communications as one of its priority themes. The Bishop also spoke of the need for a people-centred communication. He said the Church needs to use modern means of communication to proclaim the Word of God.

The Parish Communication Agents who presented themselves for the training were drawn from various parishes and Small Christian Communities (SCCs) of Kakamega.

A national Catholic network with content based on the Gospel

The purpose of the training is to form a national Catholic communication network that would generate alternative news content based on Gospel values. This is according to the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) National Executive Secretary for Social Communications, Brother Elias Mokua, SJ.  According to Brother Mokua, the plan is for a network that would use several media platforms including radio, print, Internet social media, TV and video to propagate alternative content.