The Association for Catholic Information in Africa (ACI AFRICA) is celebrating the 5th anniversary of its establishment.

Launched on August 17, 2019, to serve as a news apostolate of the EWTN Global Catholic Network in Africa, this news service provides free, up-to-date news about the Catholic Church in Africa, with particular emphasis and references to the words of the Pope and the Vatican.

The network offers ready news from Catholic dioceses, parishes, commissions, and websites. This has indeed increased the awareness of the activities of the universal church, with special reference to Africa, giving joy to the ordinary African Catholic who knows that his simple voice from the very corners of his grassroots can be heard in any part of the world.

The celebration which has been facilitated by the Editor-in Chief of ACI AFRICA, Rev. Fr. Don Bosco Onyalla, in consultation with the Presidents of SECAM and CEPACS, will come up on Friday, 9 August, 2024, around the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, paying significant tribute to the Blessed Mother, the star of evangelization.

Coming up in the period of Synodality, when the Church has taken up the task of moving together more actively in participation, communion and mission, this 5th anniversary of ACI AFRICA, is taking place in the 43rd year of the establishment of EWTN, the largest Catholic media organization in the world.

This is something to be proud of because in working together through participation, the communion of the Church all over the world is bearing fruits for her mission, and especially in Africa.

The Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of EWTN, Michael P Warsaw, in his invitation letter to His Eminence Fridolin Cardinal Ambongo, the President of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), attests to this fact as he wrote, “at EWTN we recognize the significance of the testimony of the Church in Africa to the Universal Church and want to amplify its voice.

The voice of the Catholic Bishops at the first session of the ongoing Synod on Synodality and continuous witness to the sanctity of life and the sacrament of marriage, are recent examples that exemplify the essential place of the Church in Africa.”

This must have occasioned the invitation to the President of the Pan-African Episcopal Committee for Social Communications (CEPACS), Bishop Emmanuel Adetoyese Badejo, as the Principal Guest and Keynote Speaker, also to Bishop Wallace Ng’ang’a, the Auxlliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Nairobi and the Chairman, Commission for Social Communications of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops, who will be the Main Celebrant at the Holy Mass. 

Here, we have a testimony to amplification of the voice of the Church in Africa for the right reasons. Indeed, the joy we celebrate has grown in stages.

It is worthy of mention that before the ACI AFRICA, the Bishops of SECAM established and supported the CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY FOR AFRICA (CANAA), whereupon its director Rev. Fr. John Bosco Ochieng Onyalla became the editor-in-chief of ACI AFRICA to date.

This is cheering news, and it deserves all the hype. Congratulations, ACI AFRICA. Congratulations to SECAM and CEPACS. Congratulations to the Church in Africa. Congratulations to the Universal Church. 

 

_Rev. Fr. Martin Badejo_

_Oyo Diocese_

_Nigeria_