CREC President Fr. Fabrizio Colombo represented the association at the first SIGNIS World Congress ever held on African soil. At the centre of the week: training, digital literacy and the legacy of Pierre Babin in the age of artificial intelligence.
From 3 to 8 August 2026 Kigali hosted the World Congress of SIGNIS, the World Catholic Association for Communication. For the first time in the organisation’s history, this four-yearly gathering took place in Africa, bringing together hundreds of journalists, producers, filmmakers, academics and digital communicators from more than forty countries under the theme “Digital Communication for Cultural Harmony and Environmental Wellbeing”. CREC International was present through its President, Fr. Fabrizio Colombo.
Sharing a passion, recognising a task
The congress was above all an occasion for sharing: putting in common, with hundreds of Catholic communicators, the same passion and the same commitment to a communication that builds communion. For CREC that commitment has a precise name: training communicators. This is where today’s challenge of digital literacy is played out — a challenge echoed in Pope Leo XIV’s call to safeguard the human person in the age of artificial intelligence. It is not enough to use the tools: people must be educated to read them, to question them, to make use of them without being used by them.
Pierre Babin and AI: the “symbolic way” meets generative creativity
Within this framework, CREC presented the thought and vision of its founder, Fr. Pierre Babin, proposing a connection between his symbolic way and creativity generated together with artificial intelligence. “Less notions, more emotions”: the insight that faith is communicated through symbol, image and experience has not been superseded by the new technologies — on the contrary, it challenges them. AI can become a creative force at the service of Catholic communication, provided it remains inhabited by human, spiritual and pedagogical discernment.
CREC within the worldwide SIGNIS network
The assembly of delegates, meeting during the congress, renewed the association’s governing bodies. Fr. Fabrizio Colombo was confirmed in the leadership of SIGNIS International: a sign of trust that brings CREC back as an active protagonist and partner within the worldwide network of Catholic communicators, with a view to contributing to the educational mission that the Catholic world and the media so urgently need in today’s digital context.
Together, facing the challenges
CREC is a member of SIGNIS, an association facing demanding challenges, beginning with its own sustainability. With the new board elected in Kigali there is both the will and the confidence to grow and to meet those challenges.
But only together.
