SEMINARY FORMATION AND MODERN MEANS OF COMMUNICATION : ISSUES AND POSSIBILITIES
The means of Social Communications in modern times have developed to such an extent as to be able to exert profound influence on every aspect of human endeavour. This development has coincided with a gradual shift in the Church’s Hierarchy's overall attitude towards the said means of Social Communications, from one of suspicion and rejection (especially in the early years of the Cinema), to critical understanding and appreciation. This shift in approach invites ongoing critical reflection on how the Church can better understand these providential gifts to man, so as to engender a responsible use of them that will result in better persons, faithful Christians and a more committed, evangelizing Church. The formation of future priests is an important locus for the deepening of the Church’s appreciation of these means of communication. It is imperative for future priests, a good number of whom are Digital Natives, to develop a keen understanding of the culture of the modern means of communication, and it’s implication for the Church’s mission. Using the extant situation in the Major Seminaries of the Old Lagos Ecclesiastical Province as a case study, this paper attempts to raise issues bordering on the implications of the present state of the means of Social Communications for the human person as a whole. These issues will be correlated with possibilities that can be applied to Seminary formation, so as to highlight some valuable lessons for the Church.
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