One common question people ask is: “Are Religious Sisters allowed to use phones?” It’s a question many have wondered about. For years, the popular image of a religious sister was someone detached from the world: always in prayer, far from television, phones, or social media.
That perception isn’t entirely wrong. In the early years of religious life, technology was not part of daily life. Many congregations focused on prayer, community, and service. Their main sources of information were newspapers and magazines. Even today, some monastic communities still maintain that tradition of simplicity and limited media use.
But the world has changed. As communication evolved, the Church and religious congregations began to see the value of technology in spreading the Gospel. Today, the media is the most common place where people meet, share, and learn especially young people.
If ministry is about meeting people where they are, then religious must also be present in those spaces. And for today’s youth, that space is digital.
Religious sisters are now actively using phones, computers, and social media in their work. They are on Facebook, WhatsApp, TikTok, and YouTube. They partake in interviews, manage websites, teach ICT in schools, and run media departments in their congregations.
They are no longer just consumers of media they are creators.
A clear example is the Catholic Sister Communicators Network – Ghana (CASCON-GH), a media network owned and managed by religious sisters in Ghana and across Africa.
Just recently, CASCON-GH concluded a Media Training Workshop for about 40 Religious Sisters from 22 Congregations in Ghana.
During the four-day workshop the Sisters were trained in:
- Website management and publishing
- Storytelling and content creation
- Editing, photography, and videography
- Digital communication and social media for ministry
The goal is simple: to equip Sisters with skills to tell their stories. To share what God is doing in their congregations, schools, hospitals, and communities and to bring those stories to the wider public.
Technology is no longer a distraction from prayer. For many sisters today, it is a tool for evangelisation.
As the Church continues to go digital, religious sisters are proving that faith and media can walk together, reaching hearts, one post, one video, one story at a time.
By: Mary Adu-Gyamfi, SVI
(Sister Communicator)
