The Boscom (Don Bosco Communication)
South Asia General Assembly is being held from November 5 to 8, 2015 at Don
Bosco’s Panjim with delegates from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and
India participating in it. The theme of the conference is ‘Social Media and
Family Values’. The conference was inaugurated at the hands of Archbishop of
Goa, Rev Filipe Neri Ferrao along with Fr Filiberto Gonzalez, General
Councillor for Social Communications, Fr Godfrey D’Souza, Provincial Delegate
for Boscom, South Asia, Fr Ian Figueredo, Provincial of Panjim Provence, Fr
Joaquim Fernandes, Regional Delegate, Boscom and Fr Joaquim Lobo, Delgate,
Province of Panjim.
Fr Godfrey D’Souza, Provincial Delegate
for Boscom, South Asia and the Provincial of the Salesian Province of Mumbai
gave the welcome speech. “Fr Filiberto Gonzalez has come down from Rome to be
part of these three days of action, planning and deliberation. Social
communication is a new term that has come up in the last decade. It is the
re-categorisation of social skills, language skills and communication skills.
The world is a shrinking space and technology is helping people connect. For
Salesians who run many educational institutions, it is important to be
connected on social media,” said Fr Godfrey D’Souza.
He further added that though there are
youngsters who follow celebrities on social networking sites, the Facebook page
Jesus Daily receives nearly 1.3 billion hits every month. “Jesus Daily has 1.6
million fans following this engaging site. This shows that religion has moved
beyond the churches and we have to take bold steps to meet the young where they
are found most.”
Fr Filiberto Gonzalez, the General
Councillor for Social Communications from Rome also spoke at the inauguration
of the Boscom South Asia Assembly. “Social communication in the Eucharist was
first, not the media,” he said before declaring the three-day meet open.
The keynote address ‘Social Media and
Family Values – Issues and Challenges’ was delivered by Glen Brass while
Frederick Noronha spoke about ‘The social media and its potential for creating
local content’, followed by Prakash Kamat’s talk on Understanding the status of
social media and issues of family, with special focus on children and youth of
India. The afternoon session continued with Fr Simon Diniz’s session on
‘Families today – Urban and Rural India’ followed by Dr A Freddy Fernandes
talking about ‘Role of Media for Social Development’.
There was a group presentation and
discussion with the youth facilitated by Jovito Lopes, and a session on ‘How to
handle Social Media today,’ a panel discussion involving a cross section of
experts moderated by Fr Cleophas Braganza. The sessions on November 6, 7 and 8,
2015 will be an internal discussion exclusively for the Salesian family
members.
