CFA Revs Up Manila Youth Media Ministers

The recently organized media team of the Manila Archdiocesan Commission on Youth (ACY) headed by Fr. Jade Licuanan has boosted its media evangelization campaign after a weekend seminar on social media for evangelization conducted by the CFA Training team. Around 21 youth leaders from different parishes participated in the workshop held at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Manila last March 10-11, 2012, which was facilitated by CFA Training Head Ms. Bob Lopez and Training Specialist Fr. Stephen Cuyos, msc.

Fr. Jade, in his recognition of the need to take advantage of media in evangelizing the youth, formed a team of creative and media-oriented young people from the different parishes and vicariates of the Archdiocese of Manila. He believed that with the use of media, including the internet, the youth will turn to Christ, especially if the producers of the media are the youth themselves, speaking the same language and sharing the same interests. He approached various Church media organizations, including CFA, to help ACY in fulfilling this vision.

The 2-day workshop facilitated by the CFA team was intended to prepare the youth for their upcoming Ka-Talk #47 event, a regular youth forum of the archdiocese. The theme for this event is “Media in Mission: Making Good Use of the Youth’s Presence in the Digital World.” The various sessions conducted by CFA on photostories, video sharing, social networking, free open source software and social gaming were most appropriate for this campaign. The participants were further convinced that these tools can really help them evangelize their fellow youths and make them more active in Church activities. The hands-on workshops for each topic became an effective training ground for their work as media ministers. (Click here for a sample of their work.)

Many of the participants posted their comments about the two-day workshop on their Facebook pages. Kat Beral posted the following comment: “Kudos to Fr. Stephen Cuyos and Ms. Bob for sharing what the youth can use for media evangelization. We are one with you in proclaiming God’s word through media. Thank you! Muchas gracias! Daghang salamat.” Fr. Jade made this shoutout: “Maraming salamat po kay Fr. Stephen and Bob for spending this weekend to share God in this modern times! The Archdiocesan Commission on Youth of the Archdiocese of Manila is very very grateful! We will see each other more often!”

After this workshop, CFA is expected to run more seminars with the ACY as it continues to engage more of its youth leaders in the work of media evangelization.