KENYA: AMECEA Secretary General Urges Catholic Journalists To Write About Church Mission In Africa
Rev. Fr. Anthony Makunde AMECEA Secretary General
Catholic Journalists from AMECEA Region have been urged to write stories about the Catholic Church in Africa from the African perspective and share them with the the world, instead of leaving it to others to write for them. This was said by AMECEA Secretary General Rev. Fr. Anthony Makunde during a training on Online News reporting held at Don Bosco Youth Education Service (YES) in Nairobi, Kenya, from 24-28th March 2019.
In his opening remarks, Fr. Makunde said that the background to the training is the AMECEA Plenary which was held in Ethiopia in 2018 where bishops came up with 3 specific resolutions with regard to Social Communications.
First is the need to empower Catholic journalist to sharpen their skills so that they are able to write credible stories.; second is the need to share the stories among Member Conferences of AMECEA; third is to mainstream communication in all the department so that all works of the Church are pitched.
“AMECEA bishops give you the responsibility of working with each and every department within the Conferences and even those of the dioceses. Show your presence in all offices within the conferences.
Your presence at this training is in view of finding out the best way of reporting the news, sharing information and how you should mainstream communications so that the world knows what the Church is doing in fulfillment of her mission.
The bishops are asking you to make sure that Member Conferences in the region are getting news about the pastoral activities, events and social ministries of the Church and share with the world at large,” he said.
He also said that the workshop must empower those who are already trained to sharpen their skills.
“Let this training be a new beginning, a new chapter on how you collaborate and share information. It is time for Africa to write its own history. People have been reporting about us and how we look like. Now we say it is time we write our own stories.
It is high time we write about our own history, culture, the Church’s mission and our values. Tell to the world this is what we are as Church, and this is how we are doing the mission, rather than wait for the international Media to write on our behalf,” he insisted.
He also expressed his desire to see AMECEA Communicators strengthening their networking and friendships, saying that sharing of information among Conferences has made the Association strong.
The training was organized by AMECEA Social Communication Department with financial support Propaganda Fides through SIGNIS in collaboration with other private benefactors.
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By Sarah Pelaji
