In a bid to advocate for the need to intensify Evangelisation through the Media in the West African country of Ghana, a Catholic Priest says the Catholic Church in Ghana “must invest in the creation of a thorough digital strategy that unifies all of its online platforms and projects, if it wants to fully realize the promise of, say, digital technology.”
“Such a plan should be based on the Church’s mission and vision and prioritize the needs of its members, especially those who are located in the periphery,” Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Dolphyne, the Director of the Sekondi-Takoradi Diocesan Department of Social Communications said in an opinion piece titled: “Catholic Media Evangelization In Ghana: All Hands On Deck” shared with newswatchgh.com.
According him in the March 27 opinion piece, media evangelisation provides a potent and effective way to reach a large audience, especially people, who are frequently the most sensitive to the problems of the modern world, the Church in Ghana must embrace Catholic media evangelization.
The advantages of using the media to evangelize by the Catholic Church in Ghana means that we as Catholics cannot justify our failure at employing the media, be it traditional media or new media on the grounds of lack of capital or resources,” he stated.
He added: “The media is expensive, yes but the media also pays in terms of the benefits it provides,” noting, “ The joy of telling our own story should be motivating enough to encourage us to embrace the media.”
Fr. Dolphyne emphasised that the challenge for Catholics in Ghana and the use of media for evangelization is not a problem of content but a willingness to invest the needed capital to kick-start the project.
“While acknowledging the various stakeholders’ contributions to the realization of the National Catholic Television agenda, it’s equally important to remind ourselves that most of our people are not welcoming the idea of buying an additional decoder to enable them access Catholic contents. These people are posing the question, “why can’t I have the Catholic television on my already existing decoder without buying a new decoder?”’ he averred.
Adding, he said, “The fact is we are already late in media evangelization and any attempt to penetrate that space must be holistic and aimed at directing the market to our favour.”
