Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio G. Cardinal Tagle and other church dignitaries are among 800 guests expected to attend the Catholic Mass Media Awards (CMMA) presentation at 5 p.m. on October 25 at the Star Theater, Star City, CCP Complex, Pasay City.
Bishops and members of the clergy from the different parishes and religious organizations, community and civic leaders, mass media practitioners and other communication professionals and student-journalists will also be present. Among the special guests are Msgr. Arnaldo Catalan, counselor of the Apostolic Nunciature, and Msgr. Esteban Lo, chaplain of the Chapel of the Eucharistic Lord at the SM Shopping Mall in Mandaluyong.
To welcome guests and finalists are D. Edgard A. Cabangon, CMMA acting chairman, and Fr. Rufino C. Sescon Jr., trustee and executive director. They will be joined by other members of the CMMA board of trustees and officers.
Bishop Mylo Hubert Vergara of the Diocese of Pasig, also head of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines Episcopal Commission on Social Communication and Mass Media (CBCP-ECSCMM), will be the keynote speaker.
The CBCP-ECSCMM is the church agency that links the bishops’ organization with the mass media and communication professionals. The commission is considered particularly relevant today, as social media and communications influence social and cultural values.
Vergara is expected to discuss how the tools of social communication and the mass media can be used in promoting Christian values, ideals and standards among the people, especially the young.
This is the 39th year of the CMMA that was established by the late Jaime L. Cardinal Sin, then Archbishop of Manila, in 1978 in observance of International Social Communications Day.
The late Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua was named chairman and president of the CMMA in 1999 by Cardinal Sin, and held the post until he passed away in 2016, for a term of almost 17 years.