Onwards for the Good News

Participants of the three-day CBCP-ECSC Seminar Workshop for Parish Soccom and Media Practitioners at Betania Retreat House. (Photo by CBCP-ECSC)

In our everyday lives, communication is inevitable. It is very basic. So basic that some take it for granted and no longer realize that in communication, we can either make or break others.

With the advent of internet, the media, the fourth estate, is faced with a huge problem it has never experienced before. Social media made almost everything accessible. Its downside, however, is the proliferation of fake and unverified truths that can be easily accessed and shared.

The mainstream media are not the only ones facing this problem. The church, including its media, is on its feet to counter this problem. After all, the church media’s goal is to evangelize the Good News, which is the only truth.

Relative to this, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines Episcopal Commission on Social Communications (CBCP-ECSC) spearheaded a regional seminar-workshop for Social Communications Commission and Media Practitioners.

The event is dubbed as “Empowering you with truth in this digital age.”

The digital age has been also considered as the post-truth era. As Cambridge Dictionary puts it, post-truth relates to a situation in which people are more likely to accept an argument based on their emotions and belief, rather than one based on facts.

This is why objectivity is much of a challenge today. I am sure we are not alien to the word ‘biased’ because this word is everywhere in the social media sites.

“Right now, negativities, in a way, overwhelm the church. And perhaps, we are asking why and where we are right now? But, the other question is who are we looking for?” Most Rev. Mylo Hubert Vergara, D.D., Commission Head of CBCP-ECSC said in his homily in the Holy Mass and welcoming of the participants on the first day of the workshop.

“But it is also very clear. Jesus, Himself, testified, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life.’ Amidst all chaos, even confusion in social media, we will go to the Lord, who is the way, the truth, and the life,” he added.

To effectively layout the plan that will amplify the Good News of the church and combat the onset of fake news, the church is on its move to make sure that we reach up to the peripheries as what Pope Francis constantly reiterates.

In the era of post-truth, we are faced with risks and crises that, if not handled well, may probably cause an uproar and shaken the foundation of anyone.

For the Davao Verbum Dei Media Foundation, Inc., particularly the Davao Catholic Herald and the DXGN 89.9 Spirit FM-Davao, will continue to create its brand as a herald of truth and a friend who journeys with the promise to lighten one’s load, direct one’s life, and heal one’s brokenness.