Catholic communications officers from Southern Africa have been called to share stories and “experiences of the risen Lord in Southern Africa.”

Addressing participants during the opening mass of a communications workshop underway at Lumko Retreat and Conference Centre in Benoni, the Liaison Bishop for Communications of the Inter-Regional Meeting of the Bishops of Southern Africa (IMBISA) said, “We are the ones called to share through media, the journey of faith of the Church in our countries. We are called to share our stories.”

“Our experience of the Risen Lord in Southern Africa because as Pope Benedict wrote: “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction,” said Bishop José Luis Gerardo Ponce de León during the Tuesday, August 29 mass.

The August 28 to September 1 workshop under the theme ‘Communicating the Faith With Joy’ has brought together communications officers from IMBISA’s nine-member countries – Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, São Tomé and Príncipe, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.

In his homily, Bishop Ponce de Leon encouraged IMBISA communications officers to ensure that their communication is “marked by curiosity, openness, and passion.”

“We should be able to listen with the ear of the heart, should be the fruit of our relationship with Jesus, and should make sure it takes people to Jesus,” he added.

On the first day of the IMBISA communications workshop, participants shared experiences in the field of Catholic communications and suggested new and innovative methods of spreading the Gospel through communications in the region.

Speaking to the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC) Communications officer Bishop Ponce de Leon said the workshop is an opportunity for IMBISA to think about the kind of communication the Church envisages for the region.

In her presentation titled ‘Speaking with the Heart: Pastoral Insights for National Communication Offices in Digital Era’, Sr Olga Massango of the Paulist Sisters said IMBISA Communications “should be a catalyst and an animator of all pastoral aspects within the IMBISA region.”

Meanwhile, the Secretary for the Commission of Information of the Synod of Bishops in her presentation about the ‘Importance of media for a more Synodal Church’ encouraged participants to be “the protagonists in disseminating honest and true stories about the works of the Catholic Church.”

Sheila Pires went on to say that the Catholic Church in Southern Africa should “Invest in human resources at Diocese and parish level,” and called for more communications workshops that will bring on board Catholic journalists to share their expertise.”

The SACBC communications officer also encouraged IMBISA to “train young people at the parish level so they can develop their talent, as they are the now and future of the church.”