Catholic Bishops in Nigeria have been charged to financially support communications apostolates in their various dioceses in Nigeria in order to make Church Communication competitive and effective against the heavily funded antagonistic secular media.
Very Rev. Fr. Moses Aondover Iorapuu Ph.D, director of Social Communications, Catholic diocese of Makurdi made the call while welcoming directors of Social Communications from all dioceses in Nigeria including other participants during the First Plenary Meeting of Archdiocesan, Diocesan and Religious directors of Social Communications held at the Pope John Paul II Pastoral Centre, Makurdi on March 26, 2019.
In his words, ” The idea of funding the communication apostolate with paltry communication collection will not make church communication competitive and effective against the heavily funded secular media”.
Reiterating the importance of communication in the Church, he noted that more than mere professionals, some directors of Social Communications and media practitioners are also ministers of the Sacraments as well as prophets by virtue of baptism, as such we have the obligation of healing a broken world by the services we render.
While quoting the Holy Father, Pope Francis, the Communication boss in Makurdi diocese stated that, “ The net is a resource of our time, and he said that the Holy Father describes it as ” The extraordinary possibility of access to knowledge and information, but on the flipside, the most exposed to disinformation, distortion of facts and interpersonal relationship.
Against this backdrop, Rev. Fr. Dr. Moses enjoined the directors and other media workers in the church to explore all tenets of the media and utilize it effectively in presenting the church in a positive light before the society especially in the wake of negative attacks mounted against the church recently and present the truth before the people.
He thanked God for journey mercies granted to all participants to the first plenary of the group and promised them a memorable stay.
