A recent visit to Papua New Guinea to give presentations to seminarians on ‘ecological conscience’ and social media, was an energising experience for Fr Anthony Le Duc SVD.

Fr Anthony is a Divine Word Missionary of the Australia Province, based in Bangkok and is Executive Director of the Asian Research Centre for Religion and Social Communication.

He was invited to deliver an academic lecture to the students at Good Shepherd Seminary in the Archdiocese of Mount Hagen, PNG by Fr Michael Nguyen SVD who is Dean of Studies at the seminary.

“When the Dean of Holy Spirit Seminary in Port Moresby heard about my coming, he reached out to invite me to talk there as well,” Fr Anthony said.

These are the two primary places where seminarians are trained in philosophy and theology in PNG.

During his visit, Fr Anthony spoke on the topics of ‘Ecological Conscience’ and ‘Christian Discipleship and Social Media’.

“This was my first visit to PNG,” he said.

“My impression is that PNG culture is very community oriented. People are sociable and like to congregate in social settings.

“They’re always ready to strike up a conversation with someone, whether they know them or not. This is exceptionally rare nowadays in so many societies where people are focused on their electronic gadgets when they are in public that there is very little interaction going on between people.

“This is also my fear about what will happen to the people in PNG when the country has more access to the internet and the use of mobile phones becomes more prevalent in the country.

“We’ve seen this happen almost universally throughout the world as digital technology takes over people’s lives.”

Fr Anthony said the visit to Mt Hagen in the cool-climate highlands was a highlight for him.

“There are so many different kinds of plants and flowers with vibrant colours to see,” he said.

“And virtually everything the people eat is locally grown.

“There are many ecologically positive things in this environment. However, there are also issues that would need to be addressed as well, such as the amount of plastic rubbish being thrown on the ground, which unfortunately, degrades an exceptionally beautiful and scenic landscape.”

On the issue of social media, Fr Anthony said that in PNG, internet penetration as of January 2023 was only 32 per cent, while the number of social media users was only 8.5 per cent.

“This is significantly lower than the global average of 68 per cent and 62 per cent respectively,” he said.

“However, what is remarkable is that the rate of social media users among seminarians who attended the talks at both places was 100 per cent.

“This means that all these future Church leaders fall into a small number of people in PNG who have access to the internet and already have social media accounts, albeit the rate of use is not extremely high due to restrictions of the seminary on internet usage.

“This makes it incumbent on them to understand about social media and how to engage with social media in a way that corresponds to Christian discipleship. Moreover, they also have the responsibility to gain digital literacy and wisdom so that they can apply them to the formation of young people and others in the Church under their care. This way, those who are already using social media or will be using social media in the future will avoid ways that are disruptive to their lives and the way of life of PNG society.”

Fr Anthony said he received positive feedback from the seminarians following his talks.

“I hope that I was able to bring to their attention a greater sense of awareness of the issues that are as much of a global concern as of local importance,” he said.

“And so, the seminarians need to be proactive in understanding these issues in order to learn more about them and incorporate them into their present and future ministries.”

PHOTOS

TOP RIGHT: Fr Anthony Le Duc SVD, back row, is pictured with seminarians in Papua New Guinea.

MIDDLE LEFT: Fr Anthony taught the seminarians on the topics of 'ecological conscience' and social media.

BOTTOM RIGHT: Some of the seminarians who were present for Fr Anthony's presentations.