The Prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, and Ghana’s only surviving Cardinal, Peter Appiah Turkson has lamented the rate at which African youth are losing their cultural and African values.
The Cardinal in a message read on his behalf at the just ended SIGNIS-Africa Congress and Delegates Assembly in Addis Ababa-Ethiopia said the practice of technological innovations in today’s era has rendered young people confused. He says the situation has also forced the youth away from learning and adhering to valuable African cultural practices.
“The youth all over the world are getting confused in the practice of modern innovations. Furthermore, African youth seem very much exposed and become more far from their values, cultures and traditions. As Pope Francis says in his Post Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Christus Vivit ‘for many people immersion in the virtual world has brought about a kind of “digital migration”, involving withdrawal from their families and their cultural and religious values, and entrance into a world of loneliness and of self-invention, with the result that they feel rootless even while remaining physically in one place,’ he intimated.
The Cardinal however expressed hope that the congress will help outline the numerous challenges of the African youth in a digital world and chart a course to finding a way out of the quagmire.
‘’I am hopeful that this congress will identify the serious challenges our African young people are facing with digital media and communication and would show a way out for fruitful use of communication. The Church needs to help them. The Church needs to guide them to the right and true path. At the same time, we also need to learn more and share more experiences among ourselves on how to use these new Media technologies to spread the good news which is the mission of the Church,’’ he opined.
Source: ABCNewsgh.com
