By Our Correspondent
The Director, Directorate of Social Communication, Catholic Diocese of Warri, Rev. Fr. Dr. Benedict Ukutgbe over the weekend lamented the wrong use of media in the country, stressing that the media has been used to promote violence secularism.
Rev. Ukutegbe who spoke at the occasion of the Messenger of Peace Support (MOP) Luncheon/Awards ceremony held at Jubilee Retreat and Conference Centre, Effurun, Delta state, said the importance of the media cannot be overemphasized.
He said the media has an unprecedented power to form and shape the conscience of people, set agenda of society, create new culture, engineer and promote ideologies of all sorts and form alliances for common cause.
Rev. Fr. Ukutegbe however stressed that the media has been used negatively by some perverts to poison society and the children with erroneous values which cause them to rebel against the gospel message.
He said, “We are dealing here with violent aggression because communication is primarily used as a means of manipulating others and promoting secularism.
“In this kind of treacherous environment, the Church must be heard. We must be committed to take the center stage, see the communication media and technology as an opportunity to engage the world and present Christ with new vigor to the world.”
Rev. Fr. Ukutegbe called on well meaning Deltans to support the Messenger of Peace Magazine, which is the official mouthpiece and news organ of the Catholic Diocese of Warri, so as to help the church disseminate information, happenings within the Diocese and local Churches in Nigeria and beyond.
Also, the Director of Project, MOP, Rev. Sr. Josephine Iteghite who reeled out some of the achievements of the MOP appealed to the Laity Council and organizations to help support the magazine by taken over the magazines and newspapers sent to their Parishes.
She also appealed to schools, hospitals, banks, hotels and other business organizations to sponsor some copies of the church magazine and newspaper monthly, promising to give out yearly free adverts to them in appreciation for their patronage.
Rev. Sr. Iteghite said, “It is pertinent to disclose to you some areas where we have serious difficulties and challenges. For those of us who are conversant with media work, we understand that no media survives only on sales without external support in form of subvention from government owned media houses. While others such as private owned media like ours depend on sponsorship, advertisement and free will donations.
“Over the years we have been managing the little resources within our disposal viz-a-viz those generated from the sales of magazines until recently when the cost of printing materials and printing itself went up astronomically.”
High point of the occasion was the presentation of MOP awards to deserving prominent pop personalities, including THE POINTER NEWSPAPER Warri Bureau Chief, Mr. Dennis Otu and others.
The 2017 Warri Diocesan Priest/Religious almanac/Calendar was also launched at the occasion.E
