CEPACS releases final document of Lagos General Assembly

Peter Dada - Nigeria.

The event held in Lagos was attended by the Vatican’s Dr Paolo Ruffini, Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, and no fewer than eighty (80) other delegates, including Cardinals, Bishops, priests, religious leaders, and Africa’s regional communication officers. Also in attendance were local and foreign partners of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM).

Communicating Synodality

The published document contains all the presentations made at the assembly and resolutions of the general assembly. Among some of the proposals, CEPACS noted that due to the rapid changes in the information and communication industry, it was essential that the Church in Africa consider the ever-changing communication landscape to effectively engage with it.

The 46-page document titled “Advancing and integrating Synodality in the works of the Church in Africa through Social Communication - CEPACS Golden Jubilee” advises the African body of SECAM to design strategies for resource mobilisation to facilitate the mission of CEPACS.

Cultivating a Synodal language

Currently, the Church is functioning in a digital environment, and CEPACS members need to devise a robust plan for promoting engagement with contemporary means of communication for evangelization.

“In a nutshell, this jubilee (of CEPACS) will be a lost opportunity if the Church continues to adopt inadequate communication structures for animating, forming, coordinating, equipping, and enabling the regional bodies in supporting respective national conferences in the Church’s mission in Africa,” Bishop Emmanuel Badejo, President of CEPACS says in the Foreword.

He continues, “Irrespective of this indispensable need, more especially now that communication can play a formidable role in facilitating synodal formation and the new ‘synodal’ language, it must be acknowledged that the current situation of CEPACS and the communication channels within SECAM’s regional bodies do not connect to and relate with the advancement of the information and communication technologies. Amidst all this is the call of Pope Francis for new strategies for evangelization in today’s world,” he said.

Synod as a reference point

The Nigerian prelate further urges the Church leadership in Africa and all who serve in Church communications, including stakeholders, to embrace the synodal vision as a reference point for pastoral communication planning.

In the document, CEPACS recommends that regional and national conferences prioritise specialised training for Church media personnel. Other suggestions include adopting appropriate digital media as platforms for evangelizing, particularly for the younger generation, and innovative ways of using social media, among many other important and poignant proposals. For example, CEPAS states that the Catholic Church in Africa requires a structure deeply rooted in the divine mission of evangelization and a communication that is unique to the continent’s needs.

There was also an earnest appeal for SECAM to widely facilitate the dissemination of the CEPACS Assembly’s outcomes with other Bishops of Africa who may not necessarily be involved in the communication apostolate.