Photo: Divine Word Missionaries/Frädrich
Father Franz Josef Eilers, a member of the Advisory Board of Church, Communication and Culture since its founding, died on 13 January 2021 at the age of 89.
A German by birth, Fr. Eilers was a Divine Word Missionary who spent many years in Asia, based in Manila, in the Philippines.
He contributed ‘richly to the communication ministry of the Church globally and in Asia in particular,’ said Salesian Father George Plathottam, the current executive secretary of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) Office of Social Communication – a role in which he succeeded Fr. Eilers.
Fr. Eilers’ academic career spanned many years of teaching at various universities, including the Pontifical Gregorian and Salesian Universities in Rome and at the Pontifical University of Santo Tomas in Manila, where he developed the graduate program in communications. He contributed to the academic literature on communications prolifically as well, publishing a number of books, from Christian Journalism in Africa (1964) to Communicating in Ministry and Mission (4th ed. 2018).
In 1968 in Germany, he co-founded the journal Communicatio Socialis, in response to the Second Vatican Council document Inter mirifica, Decree on the Media of Social Communications. In 2003, he founded the journal Religion and Social Communication in collaboration with the Asian Research Center for Religion and Social Communication (ARC) in Bangkok.
He was for many years a consultant to the Holy See’s Pontifical Council for Social Communication (PCCS).
Of late his service had been recognized by numerous awards, including the Titus Brandsma Award (2015) and the Transformative Leadership Award from the Asian Media, Information and Communication Centre (AMIC) (2018).
He was a founding member of the Catholic Media Council (CAMECO) in Aachen, Germany. In a warm tribute on their site, CAMECO states that Fr. Franz Josef Eilers was a pioneer who ‘looked at media and communication not merely from a technical standpoint but also from one that involved the social, intercultural and relationship-building aspects of it. In this regard, his perspective may be deemed almost prophetic as it predates the emergence of social media by several decades’.
They speak also of his ‘sense of curiosity’ and ‘untiring enthusiasm for thinking about communication from a holistic and human-centered point of view’.
Requiescat in Pace, Fr. Eilers!
Acknowledgments
Thanks to CAMECO for graciously granting permission to quote from their tribute, and to the Divine Word Missionaries for the use of the photo.