AMECEA: Train Social Media Influencers for Creative Content, Church in Africa Urged
Bishop Gerald Mamman Musa, of Katsina Nigeria
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
In addressing the digital reality in society today, the Catholic Church in Africa has been urged to identify social media influencers to be trained and add more value to digital evangelization.
“I know there are so many Catholics in the digital media, some are in this space out of passion and we need to identify these people who have great followers consolidate their knowledge, train them, and enlighten them more on how they can use their digital platform to evangelize be more creative,” Bishop Gerald Mamman Musa, of Katsina Nigeria said at a recent webinar session held Wednesday, May 24.
The Bishop who has a communication academic background added that influencers on the African continent need to know about the Church’s mission and better ways to propagate the true Gospel using their social media platforms.
Even though technology keeps evolving and the Church is also in the process of learning how to live in the digital world, Bishop Mamman underscored that history has it that the Church got it right when it comes to media communications.
“The Catholic Church was in the forefront in the print technology to disseminate the Word of God, and to evangelize,” the Prelate said and disclosed that “the Church lost it years later in the electronic media of radio and television.”
He further emphasized digital literacy to be incorporated into the school curriculum so more students in secondary and tertiary schools can understand the use of digital media.
On his part Br. Elias Mokua, the Executive Director of the Loyola Center for Media and Communications stressed the need for training pastoral agents especially the catechists on how to deal with children and young people during this digital age.
“However much young people are in the social media, so many of them are outside the Church than inside. We can therefore leave the 99 that we have and search for the one who doesn’t come to Church,” the member of the Order of Society of Jesus (Jesuits) said referring to Sacred Scripture as he added, “We can use technology to advance our catechism methods in churches knowing that technology can enable better teachings and learning both for the young people and the ones training as technology is evolving and learning is changing.”
Sharing under the theme “The Mission of the Church in a Digital World,” Br. Mokua underscored that “Offering alternative content through the use of social media can add value to young people.”
He continued, “The secular world has alternative content for the world. Our agenda is to give the gospel values. These tools can attract young people since they give them so many alternatives on what to do both at home in schools and in the Church.”
