Training for Church leaders in a Media Age

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.

From 12th to 14th December a training session organised by CREC, the Lyon-based Centre for Research and Education in Communication is taking place in Lomé and foresees the participation of all of the nation's bishops.

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.

listen to the interview...