After the latest SIGNIS Assembly, several organizations were confirmed as new members of SIGNIS. One of these is SIGNIS Colombia, a team of 30 journalists, communicators, designers, teachers, and religious and lay people who are committed to communion through communication.
SIGNIS Colombia represents a network of more than just colleagues, but friends, who walk together to promote the protection of our Common Home and believe in using the media to transform their country in the light of the Gospel, promoting human dignity, justice, peace, and reconciliation. All crucial concepts to tackle in a country that has faced adverse social issues and where peace has been threatened for far too long. Here, communication can play a key role in bringing people together, sparking change, and giving a voice to those who have been continuously silenced.
Recently endorsed by the Colombian Episcopal Conference, SIGNIS Colombia is now part of the global SIGNIS family. For the occasion, some of the SIGNIS Colombia members got together to celebrate and reflect on the road ahead. The fraternal dinner was also an opportunity to congratulate SIGNIS Colombia founding president Oscar Elizalde, who was just appointed as a consultor to the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication.
During dinner, the president of SIGNIS Colombia, Daysi Velásquez, delivered a message for Mr. Elizalde: “count on our commitment to accompany in prayer and action your work and this purpose of Pope Francis for a communication that radiates from Colombia for the whole continent with synodal synergies”.
The meeting was attended by Fernando Rueda, one of the youngest and most vibrant voices of SIGNIS Colombia, and Luis Mario Luna, who has encouraged and inspired this process with creativity and disposition; Javier Castañeda, Miryam Solano and Alma Montoya, a pillar of SIGNIS Colombia, were also present.
“We are confident that this leadership will enable us to have a greater presence in the regions. Fraternity, as a living seal, marked the beginning of our entity. So, sharing this moment of celebration and planning is the beginning of what we hope will be constant communication and fraternal sharing at the service of the faith”, affirms Daisy Velásquez.