By Fr Nigel Barrett –
The meeting of regional chairman bishops, secretaries of regional commissions and directors of diocesan communications offices under the aegis of Catholic Bishops Conference of India Office of Social Communications (CBCI-OSC) underlined the importance of being communicators of the Good news and called for greater role in communicating the word to the outside world. The meeting took place at Nav Sadhana, Varanasi from March 11-15, 2019.
Communicators traveling from all over India, made their way to the Holy city of Varanasi. From the 14 regions that the dioceses of India were clubbed under – 10 regions sent their secretaries and three bishops involved in the communication ministry participated in the event. The other regions were represented through their diocesan directors.
The meeting was graced by CBCI Secretary-General Bishops Theodore Mascarenhas, SFX; Bishop Salvador Lobo (chairman, national OSC,) Bishop Poola Anthony (member bishop) and Bishop Sebastian Thekethecheril, the CBCI-OSC Kerala Regional chairman. Bishop of Varanasi, Rt. Rev. Eugene Joseph, made it a point to be present for the inaugural mass and at the inaugural session welcomed the delegates from all over India.
The inaugural mass as celebrated by His Excellency Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas. He emphasized the importance of being communicators of the Good news and stressed on importance of communicating the word in the world.
During his inaugural address, Bishop Theodore highlighted the need for effective communications and communication strategies. Through examples he illustrated how we have been successful in dealing with situations when we have communicated promptly and effectively and when we have not had an appropriate and quick response the issues in question has ‘run away’ from us. Thus, through his enlightening address he urged all church communicators to speak out and present the churches perspective based on these firm realities: conviction of the faith, commitment and faithfulness to the Church, and commitment to the Kingdom of God.
After the traditional lighting of the lamp, the delegates were welcomed to the conference by Father Varaprasad Mareni, (national secretary, CBCI-OSC), who then introduced the first speaker of the day Fr. Vijay Lobo (Secretary, SIGNIS India. In the Inaugural session Fr. Vijay explained to the delegates that bulk of the funds made available by the Propaganda Fide go unutilised. Giving a step-by-step tutorial on the processes of applying for funding to Propaganda Fide, for communication projects he explained the process and the rational on the funding.
The afternoon session saw the regional secretaries presented their regional reports, these reports were an eye opener on the volume and nature of work undertaken by various diocesan and regional centres. This was followed by a wonderful performance by the students of Nav Sadhana Kala Kendra, the in-house school of culture. Through song, dance and drama they highlighted the pros and cons of social media within the family and effectively communicated the message of being in control social media rather than allowing social media to be the controller.
The second day began with the celebration of the Eucharist by His Grace Most Rev. Salvadore Lobo, Bishop of Baruipur and chairman of the Office of Social Communications. During his Homily, he urged the congregation of delegates to respond and take a stand against fake news.
While addressing the delegates before the session Bishop Salvador emphasized the need for the delegates to administer the antidote to the falsehood and fake news, we see around by being communicators of truth. Highlighting the content of His Holiness, Pope Francis’ message on World Communications Day 2018 – “The Truth Will Set You Free” – the Bishop exhorted the delegates to be ‘ambassadors of Good News’ and be the ‘truth serum’ in the world.
The next session was conducted by Fr Suresh Mathew, Editor, Indian Currents. His informative and insightful presentation – ‘Good News vs Fake News – Modern Areopagus at the Service of the Church’ – questioned the role of mainstream media. In the thirst to be first, truth has been sacrificed on the altar of ‘breaking news’. Political parties have understood the impact of ‘seeing is believing’ and have been quick to jump on the bandwagon of social media (WhatsApp in particular) and have capitalised on the use of social media for propagation of their political agendas. They have now become ‘factories of disinformation’ and ‘promoters of fake news’. Fr. Suresh urged church communicators to look at the idea of being a prophet in this age – ‘one who announces the good news but is fearless in denouncing all that is wrong in the country/church’.
The delegates formed smaller groups and reflected on how to network and exercise the Church’s prophetic calling.
The business end of the meeting concluded the deliberations of day two. During the business hours, the timeline and composition of the next seminar was chalked out and it was proposed that the next meeting be held in conjunction with SIGNIS India, thus making it cost effective.
Day three began with the Holy Eucharist being celebrated by His Excellency Bishop Sebastian Thekethecheril of Diocese of Vijayapuram, the CBCI-OSC Kerala Regional Chairman Bishop. His through provoking homily invited the delegates to reflect if the use of social media have made us into reclusive social media hermits.
The session on day three once again animated by Fr. Suresh invited the delegates to reflect on the idea of political or constitutional catechism. Through an eye opener of a session Fr. Suresh highlighted how we as a nation are moving towards an understanding of Nationalism over patriotism and how we are slowly moving away from being a democracy to being a theocracy.
The interactive session with Fr. Suresh invited the group to reflect on five questions. These questions were based on the inputs of Fr. Suresh as well as the experience at the grassroots. What came out strongly from the presentation of the secretaries of these groups was the need a permanent center and infrastructure to respond to the changing political senior emerging in our country.