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| Fr. Febian Pikiti Mulenga, AMECEA Pastoral Coordinator |
The ICT personnel in the AMECEA Region have been challenged to think on how Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can be of service in the realization of the mission of the Church today.
Fr. Febian Pikiti, the Pastoral Coordinator of AMECEA Pastoral Department, while addressing the National Communications Secretaries from AMECEA Conferences and correspondents of AMECEA Online News at the Online Journalism and ICT training that is underway in Nairobi, Kenya, highlighted what Pope John Paul II said in the document ‘Church and Internet’ in 2001. “All sectors of the Church need to understand the media, apply this understanding in formulating pastoral plans for social communications together with concrete policies and programs in this area, and make appropriate use of media.”
“As Church, we must exist and make the Gospel of Christ present on electronic and social media,” Fr. Pikiti who represented AMECEA Secretary General Fr. Ferdinand Lugonzo at the training said.
Fr. Pikiti added that the suggestion by Pope John Paul II about the pastoral Personnel, Priests, deacons, religious, and lay pastoral workers getting media education to increase their understanding of the impact of social communications, should be given top most priority lest the Church stalls on its agenda.
The AMECEA online journalism training was last held in 2013 in Dar-es-salaam, Tanzania. However, in 2014 the event was postponed due to the AMECEA plenary Assembly that was held in July in Malawi.
In that Assembly, the Bishops approved a 10 Year AMECEA pastoral strategic plan which aims to promote the presence of the church and its involvement with the media as an effective tool for evangelization. They (Bishops) resolved the use of new media technology as an effective tool for evangelization purposes, which was also one of the key topics of discussion in the online journalism training for the National Conferences Secretaries.
One of the strategic areas of the AMECEA Pastoral Plan is to promote the presence of the Church and its involvement with the media as an effective tool for evangelization.
By Pamela Adinda and Jacinta W Odongo