Bishop Badejo: Promote values for which Africa is known

The Pan-African Committee for Social Communications (CEPACS) meeting held in Accra, Ghana last week concluded with a call to Catholic media professionals and practitioners in Africa to promote values for which Africa is known and cherished.

In a keynote address, Nigeria’s Bishop Emmanuel Badejo of Oyo Diocese, who is the Bishop-President for CEPACS told the meeting that Church media in Africa must take the bull by the horns and recount the African story around long cherished Christian values and worldview common to all Africans.

“There is so much demand out there for the African voice to help promote the sense of the sacred, the culture of life, social justice, peace, reconciliation, solidarity, family, and so on as values for which Africa is known and cherished…The prerogative is ours to make a difference,” Bishop Badejo said.

Known by its French acronym, CEPACS is the Comité Episcopal Panafricain pour les Communications Sociales or its English equivalent - Pan-African Episcopal Committee for Social Communications. It is one of the committees of the continental body of Bishops known as SECAM which itself stands for Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar. SECAM has its headquarters in Accra, Ghana. The association was inaugurated by Blessed Pope Paul VI in 1969 when he visited Uganda.

The Ghana meeting was attended by ecclesiastical regional African Bishops in-charge of social communications together with their Secretaries of Communications. Ghana’s Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Jean-Marie Speich and SECAM first Vice-President, Bishop  Louis Portella Mbuyu of the Republic of the Congo were also present. Others were the Secretary General and Staff of SECAM; representatives of the German-based Catholic Media Council (CAMECO); President of the Catholic Press Union of Africa, (UCAP) and the Coordinator of the Nairobi-based Catholic News Agency of Africa, CANAA.

Bishop Badejo said the Africa initiative for a vibrant Catholic media landscape on the continent had the personal blessing of Pope Francis.

“By continuing this task in communications, we are certainly not chasing shadows. The Holy Father Pope Francis, in February 2015 when the Standing Committee of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) visited him in the Vatican, pointedly asked that SECAM ensures that the voice of the African Church is heard in the Universal Church. This is a desirable but challenging order which cannot happen without your cooperation and commitment,” Bishop Badejo emphasised.

Bishop Badejo also said the Chuch in Africa needs to honour the vision of the First African Synod, which wanted that communication to be embraced in the service of evangelization on the continent.

 (Fr. Paul Samasumo, Vatican Radio)

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