Ghana: UCAP Urged to Integrate with SIGNIS: Official at UCAP Congress 2025
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
The President of SIGNIS Africa, Rev. Fr. Walter Ihejirika, has called on the Union of the African Catholic Press (UCAP) to integrate more fully with SIGNIS following Vatican directives issued in 2016.
Sharing a goodwill message during the UCAP 2025 Congress on Tuesday, August 12, at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) in Accra, Fr. Ihejirika reminded delegates that when the Vatican approved the Canonical Statutes of SIGNIS in 2016, it recognized the body as the official Catholic Association for Communication worldwide.
According to the SIGNIS President Africa, this directive required associations that had previously operated under the International Catholic Press Union (UCIP) to become part of SIGNIS.
“This Congress offers us a good opportunity to deepen our discussions and possibly reach a conclusion on UCAP’s integration,” Fr. Ihejirika said, noting that other bodies have already aligned with the Vatican directive.
The cleric narrated that the Catholic Press Association of America and Canada formally integrated with SIGNIS in 2017 during the World Congress in Quebec, while the French Federation of Catholic Journalists followed in 2018.
SIGNIS Africa, which has a membership base spanning the continent, has been in dialogue with UCAP leadership over the past year to explore the modalities of integration. Fr. Ihejirika expressed optimism that UCAP’s inclusion would strengthen collaboration and unify Catholic communicators across Africa.
He also announced that Africa will, for the first time, host the SIGNIS World Congress in Kigali, Rwanda, from August 3 to 8, 2026. Plans for the event were recently presented to the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) during its 20th Plenary Assembly.
The President further extended a prior invitation to the members of UCAP to be part of that August event.
