Overview

Addis Ababa pulsed with purposeful energy as Catholic communicators, bishops, media scholars and youth advocates converged for the SIGNIS Africa Congress and Delegates Assembly. The mood mixed get-together like friendliness with a clear, forward looking urgency: how to place Africa’s young majority at the Centre of a fast moving digital age while safeguarding truth, dignity and creativity.

Dates & Theme: 3–7 September 2019 • “The African Youth in the Digital World: Promoting Creativity for Integral Development.”

Attendance

Attendance underscored the event’s continental weight. The Ethiopian Catholic Church hosted; the Apostolic Nunciature, leaders from the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication and Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development were present, alongside SECAM, CAMECO, Caritas Africa and the SIGNIS Executive Council. Cardinal Berhaneyesus   Demerew  Souraphiel of Addis Ababa welcomed delegates and set the tone: the Church must guide young people toward fruitful, ethical use of digital tools.

Discussion

Across keynotes, panels and breakout sessions (about fourteen papers in total were presented), three threads kept resurfacing:

  1. Formation & literacy: Make media and digital literacy standard in Church and school formation; train communicators who can witness to Gospel values online.
  2. Youth at the center: Treat young Africans not as bystanders but as protagonists and “artisans of their own destinies,” equipped to create, curate and tell Africa’s stories.
  3. Safety & ethics: Fight cyber-abuse from child exploitation to radicalization and advocate for humane, truthful digital spaces.

Memorable moments

  • Opening appeals: Ethiopian Church leaders and SIGNIS-Africa executives urged a practical roadmap that blends skills, ethics and opportunity for youth creators.
  • Practical showcases: Presenters walked through local best practice projects; radio, short-form video, parish media hubs showing how low-cost tools can scale credible storytelling. (The best-practice emphasis and youth-first framing were codified in the final communiqué.)
  • Continental networking: Editors, diocesan comms directors and young content creators traded templates for campaigns on peacebuilding, civic participation and digital evangelization.

The final communiqué

Delegates issued a clear, action oriented communiqué that:

  • Resolved to harness youth creativity within a structured digital literacy framework, and to “tell our own stories” with modern tools.
  • Called for institutionalizing media/digital literacy, improving digital infrastructure, and serving as professional consultants to Church leadership on youth pastoral planning in the digital era.
  • Committed to combat cybercrime (child abuse, religious radicalization, exploitation), promote local best practices, and strengthen SIGNIS visibility at local/national/regional levels through partnerships and self-reliance.

ORGANIZERS

Organizers thanked the Vatican dicasteries, the Ethiopian Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Souraphiel, the Local Organizing Committee, and supporters/sponsors including AFREXIM Bank, Caritas Africa, UNESCO, Ethiopian Airlines, Bayard Africa, Living with Christ, CRS and the HUB Hotel, a telling mix of Church, multilateral and private-sector partners.

Impacts

  • A sharper mandate for Catholic media in Africa: The Congress moved beyond diagnostics to specific roles for communicators education, consultancy to bishops, and cross-sector partnerships.
  • Momentum for youth pipelines: The Addis Ababa conversations fed subsequent SIGNIS Africa youth initiatives, including continent wide calls for young audio creators and ongoing efforts to elevate “citizen journalists of hope.”
  • Narrative sovereignty: “Tell our own stories” Became a rallying phrase, encouraging dioceses and Catholic media houses to platform local solutions, not just problems.

Closing picture

As the Assembly ended on 7 September, delegates entrusted the work to Our Lady of Africa and Saint Oscar Romero, then left with a compact blueprint: equip youth, elevate truth, defend dignity, and build African capacity to communicate hope—not in theory, but in projects, curricula and newsrooms back home.

Sources

  • Official SIGNIS-Africa Addis Ababa Communiqué (resolutions, acknowledgments, theme, dates).
  • AMECEA coverage (hosting details; Cardinal Souraphiel’s charge to guide youth in the digital world).
  • BusinessGhana event brief (paper count and congress framing).
  • SIGNIS 2019 Annual Report (context and outcomes)