The Plenary of the Dicastery for Communications: A Give and Take Synodal Experience by Bishop Emmanuel Adetoyese Badejo

His Excellency, Most Rev. Emmanuel Adetoyese Badejo, Bishop of the Diocese of Oyo, President of CEPACS (Comité Episcopal Panafricain des Communications Sociales) and member of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communications, made his first appearance at the Dicastery’s Plenary. In short, he said:

“The Plenary of the Dicastery for Communications: A Give and Take Synodal Experience by Bishop Emmanuel Adetoyese Badejo

I report that, for the first time, the Church in Africa was present as member at the Plenary of the Dicastery for Communications which was held in the Vatican from November 10- 12, 2022. I was appointed as member of the dicastery in December 2021. I am pleased that a few months later, Rev. Fr. Andrew Kaufa, coordinator for Social Communications at AMECEA and Sr. Adelaide Ndilu, IHM, Director of Radio Waumini and executive national secretary for communications for the Catholic Bishops Conference of Kenya, were also appointed as consultors to the Dicastery.

The Dicastery for Communications has the task of the overall restructuring, reorganization and consolidation of “all of the realities which, in various ways up to the present, have dealt with communications” in order to “respond ever better to the needs of the mission of the Church”. In this light the Holy See’s communications system is being re-evaluated.

Through this restructuring the Apostolic See can refer to the Secretariat as the single point of reference for communication, which has become increasingly complex and interdependent, reflecting the current media reality. The entities involved include the:
• Vatican Television Center
• Vatican Publishing House
• L’Osservatore Romano
• Pontifical Council for Social Communications
• Vatican Radio
• Holy See Press Office
• Photographic Service
• Vatican Internet Service
• Vatican Printing Press.

As a result of the restructuring by Pope Francis, the Dicastery for Communications became the biggest dicastery of the Holy See, with more than 550 personnel and is the first to have a lay person Prefect, Dr. Paolo Ruffini, who insists that his position is of service, not of power.

The plenary was a huge learning experience for the African team, It assembled all the leaders of the services listed above and expert consultors in various media fields from all over the world, including top digital communications scholars.

The African reality and experience were duly highlighted given how we, Africans, at the plenary, pointed out that in the very spirit of synodality, no part of the Church should be left behind in the process. While acknowledging the enormous and positive work already done by the dicastery in networking the communication landscape in Europe US and Latin America, we insisted that, more still needed to be done to engage and support Africa, a continent of over 260 million Catholics, about 15 percent of the entire world catholic population. The plenary also recognized how the values and the world view of Africa really complement the spirit of the Synod on Synodality, namely communion, participation and solidarity. The challenge to the Church in Africa is to harness all communication resources, from the traditional to the digital, to carry out her mission. The Church communication workers are also challenged to creatively leverage the themes and objectives of the Synod on Synodality, establish a strong network among all components of communication in the continent to collaborate with the network of the universal Church being coordinated by the Dicastery for Communications”.

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