In explaining the theme of the three-day seminar, the organizers have stated, “The Great Jubilee of 2025 raises many questions about the link between evangelization and communication.”
Some of the questions, the organizers say, include, “how can the Church's communication offices help bring to public attention the reality of God and His love for all people? How to tell stories that convey this reality?”
Others are, “How to ensure that Church communication helps bring the light of the Gospel to all environments, especially those most in need? How can communication help ‘convey hope’ in a polarized and often polemical context? How do we keep the focus of these offices on essential issues?”
Pope Francis at the general audience in St. Peter's Square, Oct. 5, 2016. | Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA
The seminar that the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) has sponsored will see participants engage in a series of topics after the January 22 inaugural keynote speech on “Evangelization and contemporaneity: Guidelines for the communicative activity of the Church” by the Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Mons. Fernando Ocáriz to be introduced by Mons. Rino Fisichella, the Pro-Prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Evangelization.
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EWTN News President and Chief Operating Officer, Montse Alvarado, is to address participants in the 14th Professional Seminar for Church Communications Offices in the session focusing on experiences on the topic, “From the traditional media to the streaming culture: new opportunities”.
EWTN News President and Chief Operating Officer, Montse Alvarado. Credit: Courtesy EWTN News
Other sessions are on theologians and communicators in dialogue, communications and experiences, dialogues on the communication of faith, and reflections on various paths, including that to healing, that of beauty, testimony, popular piety, culture and entertainment, and the digital path, among others.
The three-day biennial convention is set to conclude on January 24, the Feast of St. Francis de Sales, with Holy Mass in commemoration of the Bishop of Geneva and Doctor of the Church, who is the Patron Saint of the Catholic press, journalists, and writers. The Eucharistic celebration is to take place at the Basilica of Saint John Lateran from 19h00 Rome time.
January 22-23: Global Jubilee Conference with Religious Sisters
To be realized under the theme, “Weaving communion through communication”, this 2025 Jubilee Convention that the Vatican Dicastery for Communication organized is to bring together women Religious involved in media and communication as professionals and practitioners across the globe “to share their experiences and approaches for communicating hope in the contemporary media environment.”
The “invitation only event” recognizes the fact that women Religious “around the world are undertaking transformative deeds, from grassroots initiatives to global advocacy, tirelessly working to uplift and improve the lives of people they serve.”
“Their efforts have a profound and far-reaching impact on individuals and communities in every sphere of life. These stories hold immense power to inspire change, ignite creativity, and awaken hope – they simply need to be told,” the organizers of the two-day conference have stated.
They add, “This conference seeks to inspire, explore, and enhance the communication efforts of Religious Sisters, ensuring that the mighty deeds of God—carried out through and with these sisters—shine brightly and fan a flame of hope in today’s world.”
On January 22, participants in the conference are to have Holy Mass at Palazzio Pio, visit the Vatican media, and tour various other places at the Vatican, including the Vatican Radio Museum, St. Peter Basilica and Necropolis, Pius Christian section of the Vatican Museums, and the Sistine Chapel.
The January 23 conference to take place at the Vatican Apostolic Library is to have the Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, Dr. Paolo Ruffini, and Ms. Linda Hilton, who is Chair of Conrad N. Hilton Foundation Board give opening remarks.
Dr. Paolo Ruffini, the Prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication addressing participants at the Golden Jubilee of celebrations of the Pan-African Episcopal Committee for Social Communications (CEPACS), an entity of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM). Credit: Vatican Media
The various panels of the day include, Sisters communicating communion with the marginalized, shifting narratives and storytelling, future of communication in ‘traditional’ media formats, and transforming social media in spaces of communion.
Participants are scheduled to discuss the “importance of connection and communication”.
Among the speakers in the conference, who are involved in apostolates in Africa include Sr. Dominic Dipio, the Ugandan-born member of the Missionary Sisters of Mary Mother of the Church (MSMMC), who is a full professor of literature and film and a former Chair of the Department of Literature at Makerere University in her native country; the Kenyan-born member of the Sisters of the Precious Blood (CPPS), Sr. MũMbi Kĩgũtha, currently ministering in Silver Spring, MD as president of Friends in Solidarity, a Catholic nonprofit supporting capacity building in South Sudan.
Sr. Dominic Dipio (left) and Sr. MũMbi Kĩgũtha (right)
Others are Sr. Rosemary Nyirumbe of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (SHS), who has facilitated the provision of education and refuge to thousands of girls abducted from and abandoned by their families through her “Saint Monica’s Girls Tailoring Center” in Uganda’s Catholic Archdiocese of Gulu; and Sr. Paola Moggi of the Comboni Missionary Sisters (CMS), a native of Italy, who has returned to South Sudan to facilitate the setting up of an Institute of Communication and Media at the Catholic University of South Sudan (CUSS).
Sr. Rosemary Nyirumbe (right) and Sr. Paola Moggi (left)
Sr. Prof. Agnes Lucy Lando, a participant in the conference as a guest of the Dicastery for Communication expects “to continue learning what other Religious Sisters are doing in their space of (communication) service.”
Sr. Agnes-Lucy Lando, SMK (left) and Fr. Don Bosco Onyalla, CSSp. (right) arriving in Rome for the Jubilee of the World of Communications conferences at the Vatican on 21 January 2025. Credit: ACI Africa
In an interview with ACI Africa in Rome, the Kenyan-born member of the Sisters of Mary of Kakamega (SMK) said that the conference program “has chances for us to visit specific holy sites in Rome.”
“This is in line with the Jubilee theme and intention, and therefore, I hope to deepen my faith in God and grow my knowledge on the holy Jubilee Year and the Church. It's a wonderful way to begin the Jubilee Year celebrations,” the Professor at Kenya-based Daystar University added.
Sr. Lando described the conference as providing an opportunity for her to deepen the content of her recently published book titled, "Making visible the impact of Catholic Sisters serving in non-Catholic institutions"
Sr. Agnes-Lucy Lando, SMK (left) and Fr. Don Bosco Onyalla, CSSp. (right) arriving in Rome for the Jubilee of the World of Communications conferences at the Vatican on 21 January 2025. Credit: ACI Africa
“I will return to Nairobi rejuvenated and more knowledgeable of my role in the Church and society,” the widely published University professor told ACI Africa on January 21.
She continued, “From my past experience, listening to other Sisters sharing their own stories of faith and evangelization do strengthen me and encourage me on. I know this will be the case too.”
“What I learn here, I'll carry with me to go and share with others in Africa,” Sr. Lando emphasized.
For Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth of the Communications Department of the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (AMECEA), the conferences around the Jubilee of the World of Communications “are a great opportunity to learn from experts and professionals from various parts of the world.”
“Scripture highlights, ‘As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another’ (Proverbs 27:17). Therefore, the exchange of wisdom and ideas and listening to others will provide insights to help enrich my ministry in the African continent and AMECEA region on the power of communication,” the Kenyan-born member of the Franciscan Sisters of St. Anna (FSSA) told ACI Africa in Rome on January 21.
Sr. Jecinter added, “As a Religious Nun and a communicator, I expect through these conferences that Sisters are encouraged to share, through the media, inspirational stories of faith that impact people’s lives, especially those who feel marginalized.”
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth. Credit: AMECEA
The FSSA member, who manages the AMECEA Online Newsletter said she hopes to get insights into the question, “How best can communicators incorporate multimedia elements into both print and broadcast formats to enhance audience engagement?”
January 24-26: Jubilee of the World of Communications
The public events of the three-day celebrations are to begin on the evening of January 24 with a welcome and Penitential Liturgy at St. John Lateran Basilica from 17h30 Rome time, to be followed by an international Holy Mass for the Feast of St. Francis de Sales from 19h00.
January 25 is to start off with a pilgrimage to the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica, and then a cultural meeting “in dialogue with Maria Ressa and Colum McCann”, which is to be followed by a meeting with Pope Francis.
Other activities of the day include a panel discussion, which Dr. Rufinni is to moderate, participation in the livestreamed Vespers that the Holy Father is to preside over at the Basilica of St. Paul for the conclusion of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, and the screening of the documentary “Green Lava” by Lia Beltrami.
Holy Mass on the “Sunday of the Word of God” on January 26 at St. Peter’s Basilica, which Pope Francis is to preside over, is the last activity of the three-day Jubilee of the World of Communications.
The Jubilee Year provides the people of God across the globe an opportunity to participate in various planned jubilee events at the Vatican and in their respective Episcopal Sees and ICLSAL.
Announcing the start of a Year of Prayer on 21 January 2024 in preparation for the Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year, the second in his Pontificate after the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy in 2015, Pope Francis said that the yearlong initiative will be “dedicated to rediscovering the great value and absolute need for prayer in one’s personal life, in the life of the Church, and in the world.”
The Holy Father officially launched the 2025 Jubilee Year on the Eve of Christmas 2024 with the opening of the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica.
ACI Africa was founded in 2019. We provide free, up-to-the-minute news affecting the Catholic Church in Africa, giving particular emphasis to the words of the Holy Father and happenings of the Holy See, to any person with access to the internet. ACI Africa is proud to offer free access to its news items to Catholic dioceses, parishes, and websites, in order to increase awareness of the activities of the universal Church and to foster a sense of Catholic thought and culture in the life of every Catholic.
Prof. Ngozi Okpara. Credit: Pan-Atlantic University
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