… Urges Support for Fides Media
The Catholic Bishop of Awka Diocese, Most Rev. Paulinus C. Ezeokafor, has highly lauded the Roman Supreme Pontiff, Pope Francis, for his choice of the theme for 2024 World Day of Social Communications entitled: “Artificial Intelligence and Wisdom of the Heart: Towards a fully Human Communication”, and urged support for Fides Media, which is the Social Communications Department of Awka Diocese, towards fulfilling its mandate of propagating the faith, reports Rev Fr Robert Anagboso.
The annual event, the 58th edition, culminated on Sunday 12 May 2024 after a weeklong discussion on the theme in all the dioceses and parishes in Nigeria which started on 5 May 2024. Fides Media aired the internations of invited discussants, including that of His Lordship, Most Rev. P. C. Ezeokafor in her Facebook: Fides Television & Fides Media, and YouTube: Fides Nigeria, and Website: Https://Fidesmedia.org.
Speaking at Fides Media, Okpuno, on Friday 3 May 2024, Bishop Ezeokafor praised Pope Francis whom he described as very dynamic and abreast with the contemporary world and lauded his initiative in leading humanity to reflect on the good and inherent risks of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The Prelate strongly supported the new and developing technologies of the present day and the use humanity must make of them, but, like the Pope, he called for proper human review and interventions.
‘There is no doubt that technology is developing at a geometrical progression and AI (Artificial Intelligence) has long gained ground; we cannot afford to be left behind, no matter the risks involved,’ warned the chief shepherd of Awka Diocese.
Recalling an incident where the late Archbishop Albert Obiefuna, whom he described as a compendium of knowledge, was totally unaware of a notice of meeting of Bishops circulated via an SMS, Bishop Ezeokafor cautioned that even the most intelligent can be left behind if he or she was oblivious of the modern technology, especially in the communications sector.
‘Communication is everything. We must not shy away from its means and usage,’ he urged.
Going forward in his discussion of the topic, Bishop Ezeokafor insisted that Artificial Intelligence was nothing other than human intelligence transferred to computers and machines and thus, a human creation which must be under the control of man and not vice versa.
He frowned at the situation where it seemed that such products of man had begun to model man’s opinion and way of life. The prelate argued that God was the creator of man and that man is under the rule of God. He therefore said AI and indeed all technologies as creations of man, should be under the rule of man, not the other way round.
Bishop Ezekofar maintained that man should be able to evangelize AI and use it for the good of the human race, noting that it was the reason for the World Day of Communications.
Explaining further, Bishop Ezeokafor held that the World Day of Social Communications was established by Pope Paul VI in 1967 as an annual celebration that encouraged humanity to reflect on the opportunities and challenges that the modern means of social communication (the press, motion pictures, radio, television, the internet, and now AI) afforded the Church to communicate the gospel message.
The celebration came in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, which realized that the Church must engage fully with the modern world. This realization is expressed in the opening statement of the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes on “The Church in the Modern World”, which says: “The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anguishes of the people of our time, especially of those who are poor or afflicted in any way, are the joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anguishes of the followers of Christ as well.”
On why the World Day of Social Communications is celebrated every year, the Awka Catholic Prelate explained that in setting up the World Day of Social Communications on Sunday 7 May 1967, less than two years after the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI, knowing that the Church was truly and intimately linked with mankind and its History, wanted to draw attention to the Communications media and the enormous power they had for Cultural Transformation.
He and his successors, Bishop Ezeokafor said, had consistently recognized the positive opportunities the Communications media afforded for enriching human lives with the values of truth, beauty and goodness, but also the possibly negative effects of spreading less noble values and pressurizing minds and consciences with a multiplicity of contradictory appeals.
Concluding, Bishop Ezeokafor urged all well-meaning faithful to support Fides Media which is the Diocesan Social Communications Department, especially with the second collection in the day’s Holy Mass, adding that Fides, as the Diocesan Media House, must continue to serve and fulfill its duties and mandate for the Church in Awka and the Universal Church, even as the cost of production and running a Church Media House of such magnitude was becoming more enormous by the day.
