Most Rev. Dennis Isizoh, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), Episcopal Chairman for Social Communications, has said that promoting issues that tend to promote division and hatred with communications tools is not in the interest of the common good of mankind.
Bishop Isizoh who is the Auxiliary Bishop of Onitsha Archdiocese, made this remark, recently, in his homily at the celebration of the Mass for the 2019 World Communications Day celebration, held at the St Gabriel Chaplaincy, Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN), Durumi, Abuja.
Premising his homily on Pope Francis 2019 message to the Universal Church – We are Members one of another (Eph 4: 25) From network community to human communities; Bishop Isizoh outlined the reasons for the theme of the Holy Father’s message and spoke extensively on human being in Relation: positive Aspects of the Net; Individualism: Negative Aspects of the Internet; the Holy Father’s guide; wrong way to go: promoting issues that separate us; Right way to go: Emphasizing our Shared common Values and The Supreme Value of physical human encounter.
Speaking on the wrong use of the social media and other modern media technologies the Bishop declared: “Here in Nigeria, the challenge and the negative impact of the internet are well known to us.” Noting the social media platforms common in the country, Bishop Isizoh stated: “When we go through these social media, what we see and read sometimes frighten us. In a large country like ours, issues that seprate us are often highlighted in the social media, especially with reference to religious beliefs, ethnic identity, political affiliation, educational inequality, lifestyles and so on.”
He continued: “As the cyberspace has no boundaries, it provides easy platform for highlighting the issues that divide us. It becomes easy means to spread hatred, injustice, suppression and oppression, false alarms, misinformation, calumny, etc. When such issues that separate us are highlighted, there is always tension, and mistrust. People are afraid. They are threatened . No wonder, some feel that they must carry guns and they nurse the desire and interest to kill opponents even without clear provocation. Indeed, many have been killed because they were perceived as enemies.”
Stressing the vital importance of the human network for the promotion peace and love for the common good of all; in comparison to the negative aspects of the Internet and the Cyber space world; Bishop Isizoh declared: “This year, the Holy Father wants to provide a guide to help women and men of this age to navigate through this complicated web of connections. We have, on on the one hand, the virtual community (network community); on the other hand, the real, physical human community.”
Bishop Isizoh stated that the message of the Holy Father was to reemphasize the importance of personal human communication connectivity in comparison to the provisions of the modern day means of social communications which are prone to promoting division and hatred.
The CSN Communications Directorate Bishop Chairman stressed: “The Holy Father in this year’s message wants to emphasize the importance of real human community as opposed to virtual web community. Nothing replaces human encounter in flesh. He added: “We are invited to use the internet freely, justly, judiciously and responsibly to build human community. Virtual meeting over the net is complimentary: it does not replace the supreme value of physical human encounter and engagement.