A pastor celebrates a livestreamed Sunday liturgy in a church in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. (Photo: Stephan Uttom/UCA News)
Churches in Asia and across the globe need innovative and digitally savvy pastors who can find “new ways of being church” in the age of the pandemic and social media, Catholic communication experts said during an international webinar.
The webinar on Nov. 6 brought together communication experts from Asia and the Americas.
It was jointly organized by the office of social communication of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences and Veritas Asia Institute of Social Communication (VAISCOM).
Some 180 clergy, religious educators and social communication directors from about a dozen countries including India, Mongolia, Myanmar and South Sudan attended the webinar.
“The Church needs pastors who are able to provide a deeper and energizing sense of the faith,” said Sister Angela Ann Zukowski, a member of Missionary Helpers of the Sacred Heart and director of the Institute of Pastoral Initiatives at Dayton University in Ohio.
The Church’s response to the Covid-19 crisis should be to go beyond providing content and prioritize building a sense of community, the nun said.
Digital pastors should be open to ideas and be willing to listen, especially to the people they serve
Technology-savvy youth and the advanced-in-age “wisdom” groups should come together to discover new ways of being church in this new missionary context, Sister Zukowski added.
Jesuit Father Paul Soukup of Santa Clara University in California presented the keynote address and emphasized that digital pastors should be open to ideas and be willing to listen, especially to the people they serve.
Technological competencies, as well as a solid grounding on doctrine, are needed, the priest said, adding that pastors must also “test and try” what could work in terms of pastoring and providing care online.
The priest, who is the communications consultant of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, pointed out that nurturing faith, particularly in crisis situations, is important.
Digital pastors should then offer creative inputs for the senses like hearing because the same inputs will evolve into stories of one's experience of God, the priest said.
During the pandemic, the yearning for the divine and the sacred was felt even stronger, he said. “This spurred initiatives like online Masses that aim to bring the experience of the church back to the people.”
Father Nicanor Lalog, from Our Lady of Fatima University in Venezuela, said he adopted a creative way of the liturgy during the pandemic in Malolos Diocese, where he serves as social communication director.
With the Holy Spirit’s guidance, the priest has initiated motorcade processions and walk-through and drive-through communions.
Bernard Canaberal, head of SIGNIS Philippines, said Catholic media should broadcast content mirroring people’s felt needs and situations.
SIGNIS, the World Catholic Association for Communication, is critically adopting new media technologies while doing its mission under the “love shared and truth told” motto just like the universal church, Canaberal said.
Through live broadcasts of Mass, radio has fostered the Filipino identity that is close, if not akin, to the celebration of the Eucharist
Society of Divine Word Father Roberto Ebisa, a professor at the University of San Carlos in Cebu, Philippines, emphasized the enduring power of radio, which was able to converge with new media platforms.
During the pandemic, the priest said, the programs of SVD-run DYRF station, where he is a consultant, were streamed live on Facebook.
Through live broadcasts of Mass, radio has fostered the Filipino identity that is close, if not akin, to the celebration of the Eucharist, he said.
Chainarong Monthienvichienchai, chancellor of St. John’s University in Bangkok, said priests should be able to bring all their learning during the Covid crisis to a post-pandemic era.
We should continue using “the wonders of modern technology in our synodal church,” he said, because this will result in an even “deeper communion for our mission in the world.”