By Olivia Obijiaku
The Chairman of Worship Committee, Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Mr. Christopher Kpega has called for the use of Information and Communication Technology as a means of evangelization. He gave this charge in the parish, Thursday, October 10, 2024.
The chairman who spoke on the topic, ‘ICT at the Service of Catechesis,’ during the just concluded 2024 Catechetical Week also charged agents of evangelization to take the Good News of Christ online – in order to meet and evangelize the younger generation.
“ICT is a very powerful tool of evangelization.” He asserted. “Communication is at the very heart of evangelization. So, any teaching that does not pierce the walls of the Church and the immediate environment is almost ineffective because it serves only a little population. Paul wrote while in prison, in our time we need to use the resources available to us to evangelize.”
“Communication should go beyond writing. Parishes used bulletin at a time. Now that the world has advanced, we must not remain there. If the Church choses to remain there, the world will leave her behind. We must use earthly things to evangelize. Understand that it is not for commercialization or to market ourselves. Use them to propagate Christ. ”
“These day we need to target the Catechesis to meet the youth where they are. They are on net – they are online. But do not go there and be the way they are. Catechesis should involve the entire mission of the Church – Go and make disciples of all Nations. Appear the way you are, meet them where they are and they should be able to be the way you are. By the time you compromise and be the way they are, there will be no difference. We should be guided by the teachings of Christ and the Church.”
Mr. Kpega charged the lay faithful to contribute their quota towards the growth of the Church and to keep learning about their faith during Bible Week, Catechetical Week, and Laity Week and at every given opportunity because, “Catechesis is a life long journey. You need to be catechized until you die because the day you stop learning about your faith is the day you start dying spiritually. So, you need to read about your faith and about the Church.”
“Unfortunately some of us think everything is about the priest. They leave the work they should do for the priest. So they run to the priest anytime they have problem. But the priest cannot do everything for you. There is much you can do for yourself. If you refuse to learn you will buy a lot of things in search of miracles because you neglected the place of knowledge.”
