August 28, 2010 was a special day for priests, seminarians, religious and lay men and women who gathered at the Daughters of St. Paul auditorium for a seminar on the mass media. The occasion was a commemoration of the 44th World Day of Communication (WDC) organized by the Daughters of St. Paul, being a congregation committed to proclaim the Gospel through the instruments of Social Communication. The theme of the seminar was “The Priest and Pastoral Ministry in a Digital World: New Media at the Service of the Word” echoing the theme of Pope Benedict’s message for the 2010 World Day of Communication. Its main objective was to explain the “important and sensitive pastoral area of digital communication in which priests can discover new possibilities for carrying out their ministry to and for the Word of God.”
Annie Cabral, program host at Radio Veritas, the Catholic radio station of the Archdiocese of Manila, gave information on the station’s vision-mission, its strategies, advocacies, and its present situation.
Fr. Francis Lucas, Executive Director and National Media Director of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) gave a roadmap of the digital world to interpret what Pope Benedict XVI meant with the theme of the 44th WDC. He invited the communicator-evangelizer to penetrate the digital world, to have a new understanding of the media, put new thoughts, new feelings in their work and “go against the mainstream media.” He emphasized that communication is formed in the brain through the newest form which is the cyberspace. It is in the mind of the user and the computer is the new pastoral area that the Pope speaks about.
Sr. Consolata Manding, FSP, Directress of the Paulines Institute of Communication in Asia (PICA) talked on the effects of mass media, its negative influence especially to the youth and how to use media meaningfully.
Fr. Mario Sobrejuanite, SSP, Director of the Center for Paulines Spirituality and Animation gave a talk on the topic “Media Formtion for Priests.” He enumerated the basic elements in proclamation which include communication skills, personal experience of God, recognition of the power of the Spirit and the necessity of preaching the “Ancient Spirit” with the new forms. He underscored the fact that a communicator must make Jesus visible, tangible, understandable and acceptable.
