Martins highlights importance of digital media

The Archbishop of Lagos, His Grace, Most Rev. Alfred Adewale Martins has reiterated the importance of digital media, as a good tool of evangelism for the church, if properly utilised.

Speaking at the maiden conference of the Catholic media practitioners in Lagos with the theme, Mobilising Catholic Media Practitioners for the Mission of the Church in the digital era, the Archbishop recalled his experience in 2019, during the Lenten season: “I received an SMS very early in the morning at about 7am from a Catholic living in the United Kingdom, telling me that she was yet to receive the Lenten reflection for the day. I got across to the Secretary and he confirmed that he had not yet circulated the reflection for that day via the WhatsApp platform that we normally used.

“After all had been settled, I said to myself that a person could take for granted that a material delivered in Nigeria at about 6 am should have reached her by 7am in London is a testimony to the power and influence of the social media of our time. That incident showed me very vividly, the value and role the digital media could play in our evangelisation effort.”

Adewale said the aim of the conference was to establish an army of media foot soldiers, who will expand the horizon of Communications apostolate in the Lagos Archdiocese and help propagate the gospel of the Lord Jesus. 

In his keynote address, the Dean, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Catholic Institute of West Africa, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Rev. Prof. Joseph Faniran, stated that the act of communication is an innate capacity given by God to enable persons to express themselves and create relational culture. 

He said there was a need for Catholic media practitioners to assist in training individual church members to commit the media of inter-personal communication at their disposal in carrying out the church’s mission on their level of interaction.  

Similarly, the Director of Social Communications, Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos, Rev. Fr. Anthony Godonu noted that the conference was long overdue, owing to the strategic position occupied by the Archdiocese. He said the maiden edition would be an agenda-setting for the media and communications activities in the Archdiocese.