They say heroes wear capes, but did you know that they wear media shirts too?

Instead of flying boots or a majestic hammer, they have their cameras, laptops, cellphones or even tripods as their companion for battle.  

We may rarely notice them but in our local parishes media men are also present. They are the people who made up the Social Communications Ministry (SOCOM). From the photographers down to the editors they are the media arm of our local parishes whom we often address as the “techie guys” or “walking tripods.” They were all responsible for the documentation of events whether in written, audio and visual form.  

We laugh when we call them the “walking tripods” (because we often see them carrying tripods), in fact sometimes we scratch our heads whenever we see them being too serious while doing their live coverages. We often say “Sus, FB lang naman ‘yan” or “Masyado namang seryoso, wala naman nanonood sa Facebook”. It’s sad to admit but the reality is, some often neglect or disregard the significance of their work.   

But who thought that they would play a significant role in this pandemic?  

When President Rodrigo Duterte announced the lockdown of Manila, different institutions were greatly affected including the Catholic church. A lot of people started asking, “How are we going to celebrate the mass?,” “Is the Lenten season already cancelled?,” “How can we practice our faith if we have to stay at home?,”  everyone was so clueless on what to do next. 

However, with the help of our SOCOM ministers, everything were made possible. They utilized every means of communication just to reach the faithful in their homes.

To be more specific, here’s how they took care of our church :  

Broadcasts the live streaming of masses  

In our Diocese, Bishop Francis de Leon entrusted the live streaming of masses to the local parishes’ SOCOM ministers. Some parishes has a complete setup -with cameras, tripods and laptops while others used mobile phones. Either wise, both setups can deliver a good coverage of the private mass. The broadcast directly gets streamed on the official Facebook page of the Diocese where the faithful could watch hourly and everyday.  

Unfortunately, some parishes can not do live streaming due to the lack of resources. In this case, they do cross posting, a feature from Facebook where it allows a certain page to share its own uploaded video across multiple fb pages. With this, the parishes can still provide live streaming content in their respective pages with the content coming from the other parishes.   

 

Updates us with recent announcements from the clergy  

After the announcement of the lockdown, everyone was advised to stay indoors. This made the situation even harder for the church to communicate  to the faithful. Hence, all updates, announcements and reminders were given to the SOCOM ministers for them to disseminate the information. This is done with the utilization of different kinds of communication media particularly the social media (Facebook, twitter, instagram). With the help of these media, the faithful were able to know the schedule  of live masses, new liturgical guidelines issued by the diocese, announcement of cancellations or postponements and etc.   

 

Connects us straight to the Diocese and the Vatican  

Our SOCOM ministers remains as the bridge of the faithful to their Bishop and Pope. Despite of having a lockdown, they were still able to connect and broadcast all important matters to the faithful.  

For example, in the Diocese, Bishop Francis de Leon and all the clergy were able to give their blessing to the faithful via media. Together, they have produced a video blessing for the healing and protection of everyone from the Coronavirus. Circular letters, announcements and reminders  issued by the Bishop were also directly handed down to the SOCOM ministers for them to disseminate.   

Meanwhile in Vatican, Pope Francis granted the use of media when he asked for the participation of all Catholics for the worldwide prayer of the “Our Father” and the “Urbi et Orbi” blessing.   By establishing partnerships with our International Church media – EWTN, Shalom World, and of course, the Vatican Media, we were able to view the live coverage of the prayer and blessing straight from Vatican to our laptops and mobile phones.  

 

Unites the faithful  

The ministry also  unites the faithful into action or in prayer.  

The enhanced community quarantine has greatly affected everyone especially those families who can not sustain their everyday needs. In response to this, local parishes conducted relief operations for the needy with the support from the Diocese and their parishioners. SOCOM ministers were tapped to inform the public regarding the need for donations. This was done by creating art cards, articles and postings on social media, by this way, they were able to reach  a wider scope of audience.   

They also took a significant role in uniting the faithful through devotions. They have provided regular streaming of prayers at the official Facebook page of the Diocese. This initiative did not just encouraged the faithful to pray regularly but also reminds them to constantly pursue God amidst the pandemic. As what our Diocesan Head, Engr. James Wong said, “the devotions will be the liturgy of the people especially in these usual times.“ 

 

We may be far from each other due to the enhanced community quarantine but our faith keeps us together in this difficult time. Our SOCOM ministers are there to guide us and keep us in track as we practice our faith in our homes. Just like other front liners, they are also taking risks in conducting live broadcasts for the faithful.  So after this lockdown, let us not forget to thank them, our Spiritual front liners. Their dedication and sacrifices in this pandemic is applaudable. Indeed, they are worth to be called as heroes.