Filipino bishops "join" social media to evangelise
Manila (AsiaNews) - For Filipino bishops learning how to use social media and the opportunities they offer for mission and evangelisation are an important way "to reach out and be reached more easily by young people and all those who find it difficult to arrange a personal meeting but still want to learn," said Mgr Socrates Villegas, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), who spoke on the sidelines of a seminar on Media management and social media organised by the CBCP.
During the seminar organised ahead of the Bishops' plenary assembly on Saturday, experts in new media and social communication explained the ins and outs of the net to the bishops. By the end of the meeting, the bishops opened a Facebook account or updated their existing ones.
Vatican Radio director Sean Lovett, together with Fr Jerry Martinson, SJ, led the workshop.
He said he was excited to see the transformation of the bishops as they learnt about the new media, of seeing their eyes literally light up in excitement in discovering that opening a Facebook account and posting photos and messages are much easier than they thought.
Mgr Broderick Pabillo, auxiliary bishop of Manila, agrees. "The picture is so powerful," he said, "and I know how to upload a picture now. So, this is something that can help. I resolve to update my Facebook account more frequently."
Lingayen Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas noted that social media are an important way to create a sense of closeness and communion. Although "There is really no substitute to a personal encounter," these tools are "evangelisation" by other means.
Legazpi Bishop Joel Baylon said he was very happy about the workshop because it was not only "something that is seen as a youthful activity or something that only young people can get into but that it is something for each and every one of us".
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08/11/2018 14:47
