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As the world is evolving into a global village, the Catholic Diocese of Oyo would not be left behind but rather move with the tide as she embraces the positivity embedded in the digital world with an eye turned against its other side just as the need for her presence in the Digital space is placed rightly before the lay faithful in a Seminar tagged: The place of Digital Technology in Pastoral Work and Evangelization Strategies in Oyo Diocese on Wednesday, 18th January, 2023 at St. Paul’s Pastoral Centre, Aawe.

Oyo Diocese, in the bid to enlighten the people of God on the journey through the digital age made the annual Presbyteral Seminar where Priests, Religious and lay faithful gather to talk about issues that would develop the diocese to be solely focused on the effective usage of digitalized platforms and gadgets with the hope that people would get more awareness on it with the view to broaden the propagation of faith.

Of the two prominent resource persons, Rev. Fr. Martin Diipo Badejo, the Dean of Iseyin Deanery did a foundational analysis where he was able to explain the functions, pros and cons of internet and social media in general. In his paper titled; UNDERSTANDING THE DIGITAL AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN PASTORAL MINISTRY: ADVANTAGES, CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS TO THE CHRIST FAITHFUL OF OYO DIOCESE, he gave diverse advantages of Digital and information technology some of which he said were the easy access to information, interaction, more participation of people on mission, ability to manage the parish records, improvement in the lives of rural dwellers and lots of others.

On the contrary, he laid emphasis on the need to be careful that, the technology does not take the place of physical relationship, time for other valuable things nor cause distraction or reckless spending even though it sometimes reduces the value of human work. In lieu of this, he prompted the young ones to create useful and wholesome content and share them via the digital information applications which can be useful for evangelization and parish administration in Oyo Diocese with due consultation with their chaplains for guidance.

Sir Felix Fapohunda, KSJ who is a don in the digital operations on the other hand was able to make an analysis on how various Communication platforms such as Website, Facebook, WhatsApp and others work in his paper, DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY ENGAGEMENT IN FINANCIAL, INFORMATION, DOCUMENTATION, STATISTICS, PASTORAL CARE AND STRATEGIC PLANNING?

He stated what the Objectives of some of those platforms should be. Hence, “dissemination of parish information, sharing of reflections, members’ check and interaction and also the keeping of membership database, baptismal records and other parish records in digital form can be transformed into pastoral tools to administer the church on the go. The statistical analysis that can be drawn from the tables of the database can form the basis for pastoral strategies in a community…financial plugin in the digital technology: Challenges of parish accounting practices like monthly assessment, sundry account and other chancery related accounting, can be resolved by developing a simple financial record template. Also, with market convergence on the Internet, new opportunities like traffic engineering and digital economy are fast becoming money spinners”, Sir. Fapohunda further stated.

On the long run, he therefore suggested a center with workstations, access to the Internet, adequate power supply and security geographically planted to be established in the diocese like an incubation center, where young people would be encouraged to tap into the convergence of market and thoughts in the cyberspace. This period of incubation he said, would make them job ready, work anywhere, and in turn, boost the economy of the community. With them carefully gathered in the center, some basic needs of entrepreneurship would be resolved as their workstation becomes their business point of presence, and the shared resources bring down the cost of maintaining their businesses.

However, to hit the highest octave in the propagation of the faith, Sir Fapohunda, KSJ called for the need for synergy, the need for all the faith propagation voices and channels to come together to resonate in unity so as to make the creation of content and circulation over individual channels productive and easy to access.

As a matter of fact, it is pertinent to note that Oyo Diocese in this regard has gone a few steps ahead in the extensive usage of the internet through the constant management of the Diocesan Website, Facebook page and the newly developed app for data collation and financial management which would help the diocese more in reaching out to people.

Amidst the numerous effort the diocese has been putting in place was the establishment of a Micro finance Bank named AVE Maria Microfinance Bank which over the years and through individual and collective efforts has metamorphosed into a commercial bank after being endorsed by the Central Bank of Nigeria therefore making it the first in the whole of the Catholic community in Yoruba land and which can be operated even as a mobile banking worldwide.

Rev. Fr. Lawrence Oke, the Priest in Charge of the Website design of the diocese also addressed the people on how far the diocese has gone in the web development and how the diocese is moving vastly into a digital village as the School, Parish and Financial administration is undergoing the process of digitization.

The Local Ordinary, Most Rev. Emmanuel Badejo in his remarks, encouraged both the young and old not to be discouraged by the wide negative impacts of the social media but to always seek for the treasures hidden in it. On a very important note, he made it a point that the main purpose of every communication is about bringing information, relationship, ideas and emotions from one point to another and so, the people should not be limited by lack of some network facilities but should always endeavor at all times to have positive impact in their various communities and Parishes.

He thereby implored everyone present to always seek for the right information from the right and reliable sources and also to have their social media platforms embedded with quality content for it is with that, they would be distinguished from others.

 

– Felicia Babajide