Communicating mission in the digital age

Superiors of the Circumscriptions of Europe: Fr. Giovani Munari (Italy), Fr. Gianni Gaiga (Poland), Fr. Karl Peinhopf (DSP), Fr. Eguíluz Eguíluz Ramón (Spain), Fr. Martin James Devenish (LP), Fr. José da Silva Vieira (Portugal), Bro. Alberto Lamana Cónsola (GA-Rome).

In the picture below, from left:
Fr. Devenish Martin James,
Fr. Gaiga Gianni,
and Fr. José da Silva Vieira.

According to the superiors of the European circumscriptions, reflecting on some very important aspects of Comboni missionary service in Europe, it is clear that the printed word and the web address different publics: the first addresses people from age 45 and up, while the second reaches the 18 to 35 crowd. The question of how to continue to be effectively present in the world of communications involves the whole Institute. Instead, a solution at the provincial or continental level runs the risk of not being sufficiently incisive and prophetic.

Faced with the technological novelties and the new languages of communication, we Comboni Missionaries – so say the missionaries themselves – have mostly stuck to the traditional ways and with the added tendency to be auto-referential. Our presence on the Web is weak and we find it difficult to accept the world of the young with its expressions and languages. We would need, instead, a new model, strong and united, in order to have space and a voice online. Since, because of age, we are moving farther and farther from the new generations, we should learn to trust them more and to cooperate and dialogue with the young in the world of the Web as well. Comboni’s motto “to save Africa with Africa” could be rephrased into “to save the young with the young.”

This is the reason why this seminar on “Communicating mission in the digital age” was organized. At the end of the meeting, the superiors wrote the following letter addressed to the confreres working in communications:

Letter of the Provincials of Europe
to all the Confreres
in the Communications Sector

Dear Confreres,
Greetings to all of you from our Mother House in Verona, where we have gathered for a three-day seminar on the topic of “Communicating Mission in the Digital Age.” The meeting evolved in two parts.

The first part was an analysis where we looked at the digital world as a space for communication. We did it with the help of some experts: Prof. Silvano Petrosino, Bro. Bernardino Frutuoso, Bro. Alberto Lamana, Roberto Misas (for e-mail), Fr. Fabrizio Colombo, Fr. Giulio Albanese and Fr. Arlindo Pinto. In the second part, we tried to outline some practical steps, knowing that the digital world is an absolute necessity in order to meet and dialogue with today’s youth and an ever-increasing number of people. Out of our operational priorities, we have highlighted the following:

1. A Communication Plan. This is an important and articulated basis from which to start. It will allow us to define the vision, the mission, the objectives, the instruments and the target of our Comboni communications effort in Europe, in all its aspects. To achieve this purpose a commission has been set up that will prepare a draft to be presented to the European Provincials in December and then, in May 2017, to the participants of the assembly of mass media to be held in Granada, Spain.

2. Strengthening of our Presence in the Digital World. In order to communicate with the new generations we will explore the App formats to be adapted to the individual publications, so as to connect smartphone and tablet to the Web.

3. Multimedia. The presence in the digital world assumes the use of multimedia (video, infogram, animation, photography, audio, etc.) requiring new ways of sharing among our sites.

4. Social Network and mission. In view of launching a missionary social network, we hope that we will develop both personally and institutionally, the use of existing free social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.

5. Editorial cooperation. We already have a tradition of cooperation between our publications, but it needs to be increased, for instance by sharing the yearly plan and the monthly outline, and by publishing relevant articles in common.

6. Internet, fundraising and mission. Our means of communication are a strong venue of financial support. The Internet as well is a space where to foster solidarity and to collect funds for the missions. We need to explore the strategies and the possibilities offered by the new technologies, so that we will not remain without the means we need.

We thank you for your service and we ask you to help us to understand better the current challenges of communications in the digital age.
A brotherly embrace to all of you.
The Provincials of Europe.
Verona, July 21 2016