SECAM: Partners with APO Group to Enhance Pastoral Communications Strategy
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
The leadership of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences in Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) has partnered with APO Group with the intent of increasing cohesion to the Church’s pastoral communications strategy to help deliver the core messages of the Church in Africa to a global audience.
APO Group termed as the leading pan-African communications consultancy and press release distribution service aims to “leverage the power of media and build bespoke strategies that enable organisations to produce a real, measurable impact in Africa and beyond, and also assist private and public organisations in sharpening their reputation and increasing their brand equity in target countries across Africa.
According to partnership agreement that was formalized on Tuesday, May 23, during a signing ceremony at the Vatican, APO Group will help to transmit “messages of the Holy Father and the Holy See to Africa’s 251 million Catholics who are spread far and wide across the African diaspora.”
In a press statement shared with AMECEA Online Thursday, May 26, the project is being carried out in collaboration with the Vatican Dicastery for Communications in Rome and the Pan-African Episcopal Committee for Social Communications (CEPACS) to ensure the Church’s communications strategies and initiatives are disseminated across Africa and beyond.
According to the leadership of SECAM and APO Group, the episcopal continental structure of the Church Family of God in Africa and its Island is to “Preserve and foster communion, collaboration and joint action among the Catholic Episcopal Conferences of Africa and the Islands, ensuring that African Catholics are better connected to each other, to the Vatican and to the universal Church.”
On the other hand in the collaboration, APO Group “will provide support across a broad range of communications services, including the distribution of press releases, training of communications staff, and the facilitation of meetings with media and other organizations intended to foster new relationships and raise the profile of the Catholic Church in Africa.”
The signing ceremony in Rome was done by His Eminence Cardinal Philippe Ouédraogo, Archbishop of Ouagadougou and President of SECAM, Bishop Emmanuel Badejo the President of CEPACS and member of the Vatican Dicastery for Communications, Msgr. Janvier Marie Gustave Yameogo, official of the Vatican Dicastery for Communications, and Nicolas Pompigne-Mognard, Founder and Chairman of APO Group.
Concerning empowering of communicators, the APO Group will facilitate how professionals within all Africa’s regional episcopal conferences are trained.
According to Cardinal Ouédraogo in the message, “Through APO Group’s communications experience and Public Relations expertise, we can make deeper connections with media and other prominent organization.” At the same time, “APO Group will help us achieve continuity in our messaging that will ensure we are able to reach all African Catholics and promote organic pastoral solidarity on our continent.”
Bishop Badejo emphasized that the Mission of SECAM is “to ensure that Catholics from all over Africa feel connected to the Holy Father, the universal Church and the Vatican in their day-to-day faith experience,” and through APO Group’s training and communications expertise, “our episcopal conferences and officials can better deliver our message to the very heart of Africa and the world.”
