by: Ernest Senanu Dovlo /newswatch.com
Ghanaian Catholic journalists are joining colleagues
across the world today to mark the feast day of their patron saint, Francis de
Sales.
"As we
celebrate the feast of St Francis de Sales, I wish to encourage all Catholic
media practitioners, especially members of CAMP-G to be guided by the truth in
their reportage at all times. In recent times, the publication of fake news has
become the order of the day," the statement said.
The statement
also bemoan the attack on the Catholic Church and the Pope. Calling
publications on statements of the Holy Father as almost all the time
misinterpreted and twisted.
"The
Catholic Church and its leaders have not been spared, and the words of the Holy
Father, Pope Francis have regularly been misinterpreted and twisted. I
therefore urge Catholic media practitioners to be mindful of the activities of fake
news publishers and subject all sources of news to proper scrutiny May our Patron
Saint, Francis de Sales be our guide as we operate in a world, full of
contradictions ," it said.
Members of the Catholic Association of Media Practitioners of Ghana (CAMP-G) are however
expected to mark the day with Holy Mass at Christ the King Catholic Church in
Accra today.
Francis de Sales, the patron saint of writers and
journalists, was born to a noble family at Chateau
de Sales in the Kingdom of Savoy near Geneva, Switzerland on August 21, 1567.
He was a Bishop and Doctor of the Church.
He was fond of
using flyers and books to convert Calvinists—hence his patronage, though one
can imagine him just as easily settling into a post as patron saint of
marketing, or patron saint of well-meaning finger-wagging.
He died on December 28, 1622,
after giving a nun his last word of advice: "Humility." He was
beatified on January 8, 1661 and canonized on April 19, 1665 by Pope Alexander
VII.
In 1923, Pope Pius XI named
St. Francis de Sales the patron saint of Catholic writers and the Catholic
press because of the tracts and books he wrote. Francis’s most enduring
work is his1609’s Introduction to the Devout Life, which was written for
laypeople; a novel idea at the time. CatholiCity, a repository of “the Finest
Catholic CDs, Booklets, and Novels,” calls it “the most popular Catholic
‘self-help’ book of all time,”
He is
also the patron saint of the deaf, adult education, and the Sisters of St.
Joseph. His feast day is celebrated on January 24.
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