Mission and Tasks of the Commission

Nowadays, the means of social communication constitute not only a world, but a whole culture and a civilization. Organized in interdependent networks and often connected to each other, they have become unavoidable and enjoy a great influence not only to a certain elite, but also to the whole of human society. They guide and inspire individual, family and social behaviors.

The Church is aware that the press, the cinema, the radio, the television, the internet with all its applications and others known under the term of "social networks" bring to the human kind of precious competitions. They contribute to the openness of man to the information and instruction of spirits, and to the extension and consolidation of the Kingdom of God.

Moreover, the Church remains aware that some unethical people are also capable of abusing the means of social communication and using them against the designs of the Creator and turning them to their own loss. Hatred, racism, the drug and human trade, pornography, scams, theft… often have the media as a channel for spreading a culture based on morally negative values.

Also, the Church feels compelled to preach salvation to the media, but especially to their consumers so that they use it with discernment and critical thinking. In this context, the Church has the fundamental right to use and possess means of social communication to the extent necessary and useful to Christian education and to all of her work of saving souls.

Rwanda, like other regions of the world subjected to villagisation by the media, is not immune to the invasion of information from different sources and whose new information technologies accentuate and facilitate dissemination. Also, the episcopal commission for the means of communication instituted with the Episcopal Conference of Rwanda must take care of all the questions concerning the means of social communication, so that through them, the message of salvation and the human progress can contribute to the progress of moral values and mores.

To this end, the Commission is called upon to :

 Stimulate and support the action of the Church and Christians in the multiple forms of social communication,
 Make a plea so that newspapers and other media are always imbued with a human and Christian spirit,
 Denounce the media that could corrupt Rwandan society both in terms of morals and behavior,
 Regularly monitor and evaluate the content of Catholic media in Rwanda to verify their dissemination of the doctrine of the Church as proposed by the Magisterium,
 Foster relations with Catholic associations that evolve in the field of communication,
 Organize, alone or in collaboration with other organizations, World Communications Day,
 Monitor the evolution of Rwandan Catholic media including Kinyamateka, Hobe and Radio Maria Rwanda.

Members of the Commission

1. Mgr Anaclet MWUMVANEZA, président de la Commission
2. Abbé Léodégard NIYIGENA (Secrétaire de la Commission)

Office Addresses :
 Secrétariat Général de la CEPR (Siège)