The photograph depicts a group of bishops from the Democratic Republic of Congo during
a training session for Church leaders in the media age.
This week it's Bishops
from Togo who are busy learning how to best use new forms of communication in this
dynamic age of digital technology and evolution.
As CREC President, Robert Molhant, explains the organisation
was founded in 1971 in order to train people in charge of social communications in
the Catholic Church.
CREC has since trained nearly 1000 religious and laity,
preparing them to live their Christian ministry in a media age.
Much of this
training takes place in the context of international and intercultural sessions that
bring together participants from several continents.
In these years CREC has
developed a particular methodology, called "The Symbolic Way" and today, the international
team currently offers courses in partnership with other institutions across the world.
Since
2007, the international CREC team has undertaken a series of new training sessions
in partnership with the rectors of major seminaries in Africa and Asia.
During
2007, four experimental training sessions were held, two in Burkina Faso , one in
Pakistan and one in South Africa.
These sessions were built on a partnership
between an international team of trainers from CREC who act to support local trainers
(media experts from the local church, seminary teachers ...).
The programme
aims to make seminarians aware of the communication and media dimensions of their
work, so that they can incorporate these into their future pastoral ministry.
In
2009, CREC international started to train bishops in order to help them to face the
challenges of the media age. A session in Burkina Faso took place in November 2009,
with the entire bishops' conference attending. It was followed by a particularly successful
session with the bishops of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In January 2012
a session will be organized for the seminarians of the Major Seminary in Lusaka, Zambia.