By Kim Jung-a, Reporter
August 12, 2026

KIGALI, Rwanda — Humanity, trust and encounter were the words that surfaced repeatedly as Catholic communicators from around the world gathered in Rwanda’s capital to consider a question that is becoming unavoidable for the media: what does artificial intelligence mean for journalism, communication and the Church?

The occasion was the 2026 SIGNIS World Congress, held in Kigali from August 3 to 8 under the theme “Digital Communication for Cultural Harmony and Environmental Well-Being”. It was the first SIGNIS World Congress to be held in Africa. The congress brought together Catholic journalists, producers, filmmakers, digital communicators, researchers and other media professionals to examine technology’s effects on society, faith and human relationships.

 

SIGNIS, the World Catholic Association for Communication, devoted plenaries, panels and workshops to such issues as responsible AI, digital discipleship, media literacy, environmental communication and the ethics of emerging technologies.

The discussion repeatedly returned to a simple proposition: technology may change how people communicate, but it should not change what communication is for. Human dignity, truth and trust must remain at its centre. Digital spaces should foster genuine encounter and solidarity rather than become substitutes for them.

Cardinal Antoine Kambanda, Archbishop of Kigali, presided over the opening Mass on August 4 at St Michael’s Cathedral. In addressing the congress, he urged those working in social communication to allow “the light of Christ” to guide people towards peace, reconciliation, fraternity and dialogue.


Trust in the Age of AI
For Father Walter Chikwendu Ihejirika of Nigeria, elected president of SIGNIS World at the congress, trust is the central problem facing Catholic media in the age of AI.

“Deepfakes and manipulated news have become a real threat,” he said. That, he argued, raises the standard Catholic media must meet for honesty and ethical responsibility.

Father Ihejirika wants SIGNIS to be more than an administrative organisation. He sees it as a network of professionals united by faith who can build trust, exchange reliable information and develop joint projects across borders.

The general assembly elected a new leadership team for the 2027–30 term. Father Ihejirika became president, with Pamela Alemán of Canada and Dr Magimai Pragasam of India as vice-presidents. Adriana Răcășan of Romania was elected treasurer, while Peter Rachada Monthienvichienchai of Thailand was re-elected secretary-general.

 

Seoul Makes Its Pitch

For Korea’s Catholic media, the Kigali congress had another purpose: to prepare the ground for the next World Youth Day.

With only a year remaining before WYD Seoul 2027, SIGNIS Korea sent its president, Yoon Seong-do (Gabriel), and secretary-general, Jeong Byeong-chang (Alberto), as delegates. They were joined by Father Dominic Jaehyup Lee of the WYD organising committee’s communications division, Father Seong Gi-heon, president of cpbc Catholic Peace Broadcasting Corporation and Peace Weekly, and Lee Romulo, a SIGNIS Asia board member and head of cpbc’s media division.

The delegation used the congress to meet Catholic media organisations and broadcasters from around the world, with the aim of building an international media network around Seoul 2027.

The pitch received an unusually warm reception. When the music video for the Seoul 2027 theme song was shown before Father Lee’s presentation, the congress hall erupted in cheers and applause. He then outlined the significance of the Seoul gathering and its preparations, and proposed a media-cooperation network called “WYD Now”, through which Catholic media outlets could share news, stories, footage and young people’s voices related to the event.

Interest followed from organisations including Vatican Media, EWTN and ACI Africa.

“It was a valuable opportunity to explain the value and meaning of the 2027 Seoul WYD to an audience that included officials from the Vatican’s communications office as well as journalists from around the world,” Father Lee said. “It was, above all, a chance to lay the groundwork for cooperation among Catholic media ahead of next year’s event.”

The Seoul gathering is scheduled for July 29 to August 8, 2027. Its official theme is “Take courage! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). The organisers describe Seoul as a particularly significant setting for a WYD because it will be held in a divided country and in a cultural environment in which Christianity is not the majority religion. 

Yoon Seong-do said the congress had strengthened his conviction that Seoul WYD could become a significant moment for the Church and for young people around the world.

 

What Young Catholics Hope to Find

The strongest endorsements, however, came not from organisers but from Catholic communicators who had experienced WYD themselves.

Adriana Răcășan, the newly elected SIGNIS treasurer, attended the 2000 WYD in Rome at the age of 17. She described the event as “an important turning point in our lives as young Catholics”.

“For me,” she said, “WYD is the experience of discovering God — and never letting him go again.”

Sister Francine Marie Cooper, who attended the Kigali congress at the invitation of the Vatican’s communications office to support Vatican News coverage, said she hoped young people in Seoul would discover the breadth of the universal Church.
“WYD will be a place where young people realize they are not alone,” she said. Direct encounters with Korean and Asian culture, she added, could help young Christians from different parts of the world understand one another better.

 

Rwandan Catholic media offered their own message to Seoul. Maurice Bisengimana, editor of Pacis TV, urged Korean young Catholics to remember that “love is not words but deeds”. He called on them to become “bridges of peace, bridges of hope, bridges of good deeds”.

“Even our neighbors in countries like China or North Korea are our brothers and sisters in Christ,” he said.

Pamela Alemán, the newly elected vice-president, had attended a previous SIGNIS World Congress in Korea. Her advice to Korean young Catholics was simple: “Keep your ears open, and your eyes open.”

“When the Lord speaks in your heart, be sure to listen to that voice,” she said.
Peter Rachada Monthienvichienchai, re-elected secretary-general, sees a close connection between SIGNIS’s future and the spirit of Seoul WYD. One priority adopted by the SIGNIS board before this year’s election, he said, was “engaging young people and women as active participants”.

“The experts who will lead all of us forward are the young people themselves,” he said. “We won’t be going to Korea simply to watch the event — we’ll be going to listen to the stories you want to tell us.”


From Kigali to Seoul

The significance of the Kigali gathering lies partly in its setting. Rwanda has spent decades confronting the legacy of the 1994 genocide and presenting reconciliation as a national project. A congress devoted to communication for cultural harmony therefore carried a resonance beyond the conference hall.

Catholic communicators arrived to discuss artificial intelligence, but left with an older lesson: trust cannot be automated.

Face-to-face encounters still matter. So do professional solidarity, truthful reporting and the willingness to listen across borders and cultures. These are precisely the values the organisers of Seoul WYD hope to place at the centre of the 2027 gathering.

The journey from Kigali to Seoul is therefore more than a change of venue. It is a continuation of the same conversation: how to use increasingly powerful means of communication without losing sight of the human beings communication is meant to serve.

For SIGNIS, the answer begins with trust. For Seoul WYD, it may begin with encounter.