BIGARD MEMORIAL SEMINARY ENUGU HOLDS FORMATION WEEKEND 2024.

DAY 1.
Bigard Memorial Seminary Enugu, kicked off her annual formation Weekend on the night of Thursday 7th March, 2024. The theme of this year’s Formation Weekend was titled “Emerging Media: Its Pastoral, Spiritual and Moral Implications Today”. The event began with an opening prayer said by Rev. Fr. Patrick Malo, this was followed by opening remarks given by Rev. Fr. Dr. John Bosco Okoye who welcomed all present and equally welcomed the guest speaker for the formation Weekend Rev. Fr. Prof. Kenneth Inaku Egere.  He went further to invite Rev. Fr. Dr. Godwin Orji to introduce the guest speaker properly. Fr. Orji came forward and read the profile of the guest speaker Rev. Fr. Prof. Kenneth Inaku Egere after this, the guest speaker Fr. Inaku came forward to thank the seminary formators for inviting him to anchor this year’s Formation Weekend. He equally notified all about his modification of the given topic which was initially constrained to social media to capture other aspects of Artificial intelligence and evolving developments in this field. This modification according to him was to ensure a comprehensive exploration of the given topic. After Fr. Inaku’s comments, Fr. Okoye came up once more to stress the importance of the formation Weekend and called on the seminarians to take it seriously and make themselves available for the program. This was followed by the closing prayer said by Rev Fr. Dr. Christian Agala, with this the event of the first day came to an end.
DAY 2. 8th March, 2024.
MORNING CONFERENCE
The morning session began with an opening prayer said by Rev. Fr. Dr. John Bosco Okoye. After the prayers, Rev. Fr. Dr. Clement Obasi came forward to welcome all present and equally encouraged all to be attentive, after this, the guest speaker Rev Fr. Prof. Kenneth Inaku Egere was invited to present his paper. Fr. Inaku in his insightful presentation explained the concepts of emerging media, new media, social media, artificial intelligence etc. he further explained the intricacies of these concepts and how the technology that powers them functions. Fr. Inaku also extensively discussed Artificial intelligence in and its overwhelming influence in the contemporary society. He also explored the impact of the emerging media, social media, and artificial intelligence on Pastoral, Spiritual and Moral life of the Church. Fr. Inaku equally explained how the emerging media and social media can be utilized as tools for evangelization. After the paper presentation Rev. Fr. Dr. Clement Obasi appreciated Fr. Inaku for his presentation and went further to make his own contribution. This was followed by contributions and questions from both the father formators and seminarians. Next was announcements by the MC and the closing prayer said by Rev. Fr. Dr. Godwin Orji and with this the morning session came to an end.
EVENING CONFERENCE
The evening conference began with an opening prayer said by Rev Fr. Dr. Christian Agala after which the guest speaker Rev. Fr. Prof. Kenneth Inaku Egere continued with the paper presentation. In this session, Fr. Inaku discussed Artificial intelligence and the spirituality of Catholics, he raised questions pertaining to the extent to which artificial intelligence can be integrated into spiritual life and spiritual activities. He equally addressed these questions in line with authentic Catholic teachings. Fr. Inaku also talked about social media and spiritual life exploring the moral and spiritual consequences of unethical use of the social media with special reference to cyber bullying, he encouraged all to leverage the social media as a tool for positive impact in the society and not as a bullying tool. Finally, Fr. Inaku highlighted the importance of adopting the social media as a tool of evangelization. The paper presenter was appreciated by the MC and this was followed by an interactive session featuring contributions and questions from formators and seminarians. Next was the closing prayer said by Fr. Patrick Malo
DAY 3: 9TH MARCH, 2024
On the third day, the morning conference began with an opening prayer said by Rev. Fr. Dr. Christian Agala, afterwards Fr. Inaku began his presentation. In his insightful lecture Fr. Inaku explored the various ways of being present in the emerging media. He pointed out promotion of faith content as one of the positive ways of being present in the emerging media. Fr. Inaku also explained the need for the Church to have institutional presence in the emerging media world through engagement and investment in the engineering development of this media tools and artificial intelligence. Going further, Fr. Inaku noted that AI and the emerging media are indifferent in other words they are not good or bad in themselves but it all depends on how we use them either positively or negatively. In his concluding thoughts he encouraged all to embrace the emerging media and Artificial intelligence as tools for promoting the Gospel of Christ. After his presentation, Fr. Inaku was appreciated with a standing ovation after which formators and seminarians came forward to react to the lecture through contributions and questions
Next was the vote of thanks given by the first Vice Rector Rev. Fr. Dr. Kevin Undenwagu, in his vote of thanks he thanked the guest speaker for his wonderful presentations that spanned a period of three days, he equally appreciated the spiritual directors who brought the guest speaker. Fr. Undenwagu also thanked all who worked behind the scene to actualize the success of the formation Weekend. Next was the closing prayer said by Rev. Fr. Dr. Godwin Orji and with this the formation Weekend came to an end.