Brace for Challenging Digital Spaces: Bishop to African Digital Faith Influencers Graduating in Formation Program

“We must be encouraged by St. Francis who challenges us to move out from the centre and get to the peripheries,” the Bishop of Nsukka said.

PACTPAN’s Digital Faith Influencers Formation commenced in February with over 100 candidates who were drawn from 52 African countries.

In an interview with ACI Africa following the graduation, Sr. Josephine Bakhita, an official at PACTPAN’s “Church of Now”, who coordinated the formation program said that some candidates, owing to internet challenges, dropped out of the program that was purely online.

“Some of our students could not keep up with the classes owing to internet challenges and they had to drop out along the way. But a bigger percent of them managed to complete the training and unveil projects thy will be engaging in in their Dioceses and parishes,” Sr. Bakhita of the Sisters of Mary of Kakamega (SMK) said during the Friday, September 13 interview.

The PACTPAN course was designed to equip participants with skills to become faith champions among their peers living in what the facilitators of the program described as “digital peripheries”.

It was developed to empower young African leaders with the skills necessary to engage in digital evangelization, advocate for social justice, and provide impactful community service.

In his address at the graduation ceremony, Bishop Onah underlined the need to “re-evangelize” digital peripheries, noting that the digital world “is driving modern culture.”

“Unless we Africans help shape the values that will be promoted by the digital world, we will end up being destroyed by those values,” the Nigerian Catholic Bishop said.

“Digital technologies have become very important,” he said, and continued, “When we think we are lost in a corner where nobody will take note of us, digital technology throws us into the centre of world attention, even in spite of ourselves. This is an indication to all of us that we can no longer take any of these things for granted; we are living in a new reality.”

Bishop Onah lauded organizers of the digital influencing formation program, noting that participants in the initiative had been prepared, empowered, and were ready to spread the Gospel.

Emphasizing Pope Francis’ message on reaching out to the peripheries, Bishop Onah expressed gratitude to the Holy Father, who he said is always encouraging the people of God to take new initiatives, and not to just continue doing business as usual, “but to explore new grounds even at the risk of being wounded.”

“We are reminded of the Holy Father saying that he prefers a Church that is soiled, dirtied and wounded while ministering to people especially in difficult areas, to a Church that remains clean and pure because it doesn’t dare to risk,” Bishop Onah said.

He added, “When we come before God, perhaps, we will present to Him our clean hands, having done everything to prevent ourselves from being stained by the world. I may say ‘Father, my hands are clean’, but He will tell me ‘yes, they are clean, but they are also empty’. It is a risky business, a business in which we may soil our hands, but it will definitely not be empty.”

The Catholic Church leader encouraged digital faith influencers, especially those who enjoy creating content to accept to be evangelized on digital platforms as well.

“There are several ways of looking at the digital world. One way is looking at digital technologies as a tool for evangelization, for communication, for human interactions, for governance, for many things,” he said, adding that digital technologies as “tool” is the sense in which the Church sees the digital world, encouraging young people especially, to engage the modern tools of technology to spread the message of the Gospel.

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He said the digital world as “the recipient of evangelization” is subtle, adding, “My challenge to the graduands and to all of us in this digital era is not to just see the digital world as an instrument of evangelization, no matter how well we are able to use it, but as subjects needing to be evangelized.”

In his address at the graduation ceremony, the First Assistant of the Secretary General of the Symposium of Episcopal Conference of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), Fr. Alfred Bebodu, challenged the young graduands to amplify the voice of reason in digital spaces.

Fr. Bebodu lauded the young influencers for investing their hard work and dedication in completing eight months of training, saying, “Your commitment reflects the vibrancy of the Church in Africa, and it fills us with hope for the future.”

“You are now entrusted with great responsibility to be voices of faith and reason in the digital space, addressing not only spiritual matters, but also social, economic and environmental challenges facing our continent,” he said.

The member of the Clergy of Ghana’s Catholic Diocese of Sekondi-Takoradi reminded the graduands that the mission of SECAM has always been to promote evangelization and integral human development for all the people of God in Africa and its islands.

He said that the young people’s role as Digital Faith Influencers perfectly aligns with the SECAM mission.

“As we prepare for the Jubilee Year, marking a significant milestone for the Church in Africa next year, we also look to the future with vision and commitment. One of the priorities for the next 25 years will be the integration of technology in evangelization,” he said.

The SECAM official warned the young faith influencers that the digital era is a sensitive one, requiring that it is carefully studied.

Digital technologies, he said, are tools that can either procure much success in helping evangelization or bring about destruction.

“Strategy comes to play,” Fr. Bebodu said, and added, “The Church in Africa invites you, the graduates of Digital Faith Influencers Program, with your unique skills and fresh perspectives.”

“We envision platforms that will cultivate the hearts of the youths and broader communities fostering both spiritual growth and social cohesion. Your creativity, knowledge and passion will be instrumental in realizing this vision,” the Ghanaian Catholic Priest said.