Diocese Celebrates World Communications Day
As the 51st World Communications Day approaches, plans have been concluded by Abeokuta Catholic Diocese to commemorate the day in Nigeria on Sunday 28th May, 2017.
This year’s celebration, with the theme, “Fear not, for I am with you ((Isaiah 43:5): Communicating Hope and Trust in our Time” will start with a Mass to be presided over by the Bishop, Catholic Diocese of Abeokuta, Most Rev. (Dr.) Peter Olukayode Odetoyinbo, at the Ss. Peter & Paul Catholic Cathedral, Itesi, Adatan Road, Abeokuta by 10.30am.
The event will bring together Catholic film, television, print and digital content creators, entertainers, newsmakers, educators, innovators, religious leaders and media executives.
The church in a statement by the Director of Communications, Rev. Father Charles Soyombo informed that all equipment used for communication will be blessed by the Bishop during the Mass and also there will be interactive session between the Bishop and media after the Mass.
Speaking on the 51st World Communications Day and global theme, “Fear not, for I am with you (Isaiah 43:5): Communicating Hope and Trust in our Time”, His Holiness Pope Francis urged media executives to concentrate more on good news and avoid the notion that good news don’t sell but bad news sells.
“I am convinced that we have to break the vicious circle of anxiety and stem the spiral of fear resulting from a constant focus on “bad news” (wars, terrorism, scandals and all sorts of human failure). This has nothing to do with spreading misinformation that would ignore the tragedy of human suffering, nor is it about a naive optimism blind to the scandal of evil. Rather, I propose that all of us work at overcoming that feeling of growing discontent and resignation that can at times generate apathy, fear or the idea that evil has no limits. Moreover, in a communications industry which thinks that good news does not sell, and where the tragedy of human suffering and the mystery of evil easily turn into entertainment, there is always the temptation that our consciences can be dulled or slip into pessimism.
“I would like, then, to contribute to the search for an open and creative style of communication that never seeks to glamourize evil but instead to concentrate on solutions and to inspire a positive and responsible approach on the part of its recipients. I ask everyone to offer the people of our time story lines that are at heart “good news”, Pope Francis said.
World Communications Day was established by Pope Paul VI in 1967 as an annual celebration that encourages humanity to reflect on the opportunities and challenges that the modern means of social communication (the press, motions pictures, radio, television and the internet) afford the church to communicate the gospel message.
