AMECEA Chairman of Pastoral Department thanks USCCB for supporting the Workshop on Child Protection against Online Abuse
Most Rev. Ignatius Chama, Chairman of AMECEA Pastoral Department and Archbishop of Kasama, Zambia
Most Rev. Ignatius Chama, the Archbishop of Kasama and AMECEA Chairman of Pastoral Department has expressed gratitude to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) for supporting a workshop on Child Protection from Online Abuse, exploitation and radicalization in AMECEA Region.
Addressing the participants at the workshop held in Nairobi on Thursday, November 22, Archbishop Chama expressed his joy at the fact that the two departments, AMECEA Social Communications and Pastoral, jointly planned and executed the workshop.
“In my view this reinforces our desire to do integral evangelization. But at the same time it reinforces the idea that the two departments are committed to implement what the 19th AMECEA Plenary Assembly had mandated Conferences and as Secretariat to implement,” the Archbishop said adding that this is in line with the resolution of the 19th AMECEA Plenary Assembly which says: “In an endeavour to keep the vision and mission of AMECEA, the Secretariat and Member Episcopal Conferences must reinforce solidarity, synodality and collegiality.”
AMECEA Secretary General Rev. Fr. Anthony Makunde while addressing the forum at the beginning of the workshop said that the online technology has created yet another hostile environment for the children and the young people and since the world migrated from analogue to digital technologies the society has struggled to regulate them but not to the level of managing them fully.
He further said that this challenge notwithstanding, the Church is aware of the positive impact of online advancement so much that it encourages all Catholics to make use of them as a tool to preach the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ.
“When we are promoting the benefits from digital technologies in the Church, we ought to strive for a careful balance between the two needs, namely the need to safeguard children and the young people and the need to respect their digital rights,” Fr. Makunde said adding that the workshop therefore aimed at addressing a priority area for the AMECEA Bishops who have resolved to embrace digital technologies more so for the purposes of new evangelization.
The workshop was attended by National Pastoral and Communications Coordinators from the AMECEA countries and was held at J.J. McCarthy Centre in Nairobi, Kenya from 19th – 23rd November, 2018.
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By Pamela Adinda, AMECEA Online News
