The Bishops of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) has expressed satisfaction on the achievements of the Pan African Episcopal Committee for Social Communications (CEPACS) in the last 50 years.
Speaking at a press conference to announce the activities of the Golden Jubilee celebration in Lagos, the President of CEPACS, Most Rev Emmanuel Adetoyese Badejo, the association was established to help the bishops of Africa implement the Pastoral Instruction on the means of Social Communication.
Badejo, who is the Bishop of Oyo Diocese, said social communication as gifts of God, laid down various guidelines on how to put these means to the best use for the spread of the gospel, how to train professionals and consumers who use them, how to understand their function in society, how to understand the rights and duties of the people of God towards them among other things.
He said the celebration will will take place between November 19 and November 20, with the theme: ‘CEPACS at 50: Promoting A Synodal Church in Africa Through Social Communication.’
Bishop Badejo said: “The mandate of CEPACS was to engage in all matters concerning the Catholic Church’s activities in the realm of media in Africa and Madagascar – press, radio, television, video, traditional, group media, new forms of media, etc.
“Thus, CEPACS animates, encourages, and coordinates Church media activities at all levels-through its national, regional and continental organs. CEPACS also promotes the Christian dimension in the use of all media in society and in evangelisation, which includes the promotion of the whole person and tries to establish good relationship with media professionals, practitioners and organisations within and outside of Africa.
“CEPAS functions as a committee of Bishops who oversee the communication offices of the 8 regions into which the Church in Africa is configured under SECAM. The committee also works through the communication offices of those regions and through consultation with Catholic media professionals and institutions.
“The CEPACS assembly is an opportunity for evaluation and stock-taking on the work of CEPACS over these fifty years. It will hopefully reinvigorate CEPACS, propose new communications strategies for evangelization and update Church structures and policies for the future.
“It will also align the work of CEPACS with the new synodal process which calls for a Church that listens to all its members and components and gives everybody, especially those at the margins an opportunity to express themselves and participate more in the life of the Church.
“In Synodality, everybody is carried along and no one is deliberately left behind in the scheme of things. Such a noble vision obviously has a lot to offer modem society as well. Communication is an indispensable part of synodality and so, the vision for founding CEPACS, needs to be optimised and brought into the present and future digital age.”
Eminent personalities expected celebration include Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State; Archbishop of Lagos, Most Reverend Alfred Adewale Martin; President of SECAM, Fridolin Cardinal Ambongo; Archbishop of Kinshasa, DRC, the prefect of the Dicastery for Communication in the Vatican, Dr Paolo Ruffini and professionals of Communication, especially the directors of the Regional Offices of Communication all over Africa, Priests, Religious, local and foreign partners of SECAM.
