Catholic media practitioners engaged themselves in the promotion of integral human development

28th Sep 2018 | Source: BusinessGhana

The Union Catholique Africaine de la Presse (UCAP), known in English as the African Catholic Union of the Press, held its 2018 Congress from the 9th to 13th September, at the Schoenstatt Retreat and Conference Centre in Cape Town, South Africa. Organized by UCAP with its partners, the Congress Theme was: ‘Using the Media for the Promotion of Integral Human Development in Africa’.

In all, 43 media practitioners from 19 countries of Africa, Europe, America and Asia took part. The objective was to build media practitioners’ capacity, help them to share their experiences and to think about their role as catholic media practitioners for integral human development.

The Congress was officially opened on Monday, 10th September 2018 by His Grace, the Archbishop of Cape Town, the Most Reverend Stephen Brislin. His Grace drew the attention of participants to two realities in Cape Town: on one hand, the beauty and resources of the town, and, on the other hand, the poverty and its consequences.

The President of UCAP thanked all the partners and participants for making the Congress a reality.

Presentations were made on the following four sub-themes:

Journalism for Truth and Reconciliation in the Church and of Service to People;
Promoting Peace, Truth and Reconciliation in Africa in a Digital Age;
Making the Church more Relevant to the Youth in Africa; and
Promoting the Social Teachings of the Church through the Media in Africa.

At the end of the UCAP Congress the following resolutions were made:

We, media practitioners of the Catholic Church in Africa, resolve to:

employ our tools to disseminate nothing but the truth in the media, both traditional and digital ones;
be tremendously cautious and use the necessary means to detect and avoid fake news;
contribute to conflict prevention, peace keeping and peace building all over the world;
find creative means to promote the main principles of the social teachings of the Catholic Church, such us the dignity of human life, peace, justice, reconciliation and good governance;
award deserving journalists and promoters of good human values;
collaborate with the clergy to develop effective programmes for the integral development of human beings, especially youth and other vulnerable persons and groupings;
discourage the African Youth from dangerous illegal migration;
encourage the African youth to use media in a responsible manner;
empower UCAP through robust networking and training; and
recognise the efforts of the bishops and the clergy in the area of media.