Sheila Pires: Spread the Gospel through the Media

by Daluxolo Moloantoa · Published January 6, 2024 · Updated January 8, 2024

Sheila Pires interviews Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary general of the Synod on Synodality in Addis Ababa

After almost two decades with Radio Veritas, Sheila Pires now leads the bishops’ media office and was appointed to a key position at the Synod for Synodality. She spoke to Daluxolo Moloantoa.

To spread the Gospel to the People of God through the media — that is the personal mission statement which Sheila Pires set for herself when starting out in her career as a Catholic media professional. Nineteen years later, she is still focused on her mission, albeit through various platforms over the years, and indeed well beyond the confines of the Southern African Church.

In August 2021, she was the subject of a Southern Cross feature. At the time, she was a presenter and producer at Radio Veritas. Since then, a lot has happened. This year she was appointed communications manager of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC), the first lay person to head the office in many years.

And in October last year, Sheila served as the secretary of the Committee for Information of the Synod on Synodality. The main task of the secretary is to help shape the information which the assembly wants to share, and to oversee all the media operations. Her appointment was not only a personal validation but also a feather in the cap of the Southern African Church.

Born in Xai-Xai, in the southern Mozambique province of Gaza, Sheila is one of five siblings, three sisters and a brother. Her maternal family’s Catholic piety has produced a bishop, a priest and two nuns. Cardinal Julio Duarte Langa, emeritus bishop of Xai-Xai, is her great-uncle.

Sheila Pires

Almost 20 years at Radio Veritas

Sheila started her media career almost two decades ago at Radio Veritas. This is where she developed and honed her skills as a radio show producer, researcher, editor and presenter. Before this, she attended Radio Mozambique Music School in Maputo. She was also a member of the Radio Mozambique Orchestra, where she played the bass melodica as an eight-year old.

“It has been 19 years of growth, both professionally and as an individual. I started working at Radio Veritas when I was in my early twenties. I learned to love and be passionate about my work as it wasn’t about me but about spreading the Gospel to the People of God through the airwaves,” she told The Southern Cross.

Her passion entailed equipping herself with an open mind and new ideas to advance her specialisation in the Catholic media landscape. Having always been interested in politics, women’s issues and social justice, she developed the idea of talking about these issues from a Catholic perspective.

“While at Radio Veritas, I came up with the idea for a socio-political radio programme called ‘Catholic View’. It was a Catholic current affairs programme which looked into present issues through Catholic eyes. I would invite various guests to talk about these topics, and to dissect these alongside their interpretation in Catholic Social Teachings. The programme was inspired by the evening programmes of what was then Vatican Radio,” she said.

Sheila went on to introduce a number of other shows at the Johannesburg-based station. One was a programme to look at women’s issues specifically. “In 2022 I decided to start another feature programme, dedicated to boys. I felt that we could not empower women and girls and leave the boy child behind. They too needed a space where they could address matters of concern, growth, respect for women and girls and so on. But above all, it was a space for boys to talk and share their life experiences,” she said.

Sheila and SACBC secretary-general Fr Hugh O’Connor.

A surprise appointment

In March last year she bade goodbye to Radio Veritas and took up the position of the SACBC’s communications manager. News of the bishops’ decision to appoint Sheila was broken to her by the SACBC liaison bishop for communications, Cardinal Stephen Brislin, and SACBC secretary-general Fr Hugh O’Connor. “It really came as a surprise because I always thought that the position was only for the clergy or religious women. Although it was difficult to leave Radio Veritas, I felt it was God’s will that I share my experience and expertise elsewhere within the body of the Church, now at the SACBC,” she said.

In her first six months as communications manager, Sheila has implemented new ideas. “I have brought the journalist’s approach in reporting, more use of social media platforms, and more use of the SACBC YouTube channel. I’ve also put more effort into sharing our news and events with our Southern African secular media and with both the African Catholic media and with Vatican News,” she explained.

The Southern African bishops’ ad limina visit to Rome in June 2023 served as a great platform to implement the new way of reporting. “The visit was a success from a media coverage point of view, as we ensured that Catholics in the SACBC region and worldwide were able to follow the events around the visit on a daily basis. Over the years I have built relations with several Catholic and secular media, which also helped to publicise the bishops’ visit,” she said.

In April last year, the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) appointed Sheila a member of the golden jubilee planning committee of the Pan African Episcopal Committee for Social Communications. She uses this platform to share SACBC content and to ensure that the SACBC and the Church in Southern Africa is recognised and given a prominent role within Catholic events at the African level.

Pope heard voices of women

In 2018, Sheila was one of two Southern African women who attended the “Catholic Women Speak” seminar in Rome, alongside Prof Nontando Hadebe. The international Catholic women’s gathering was held to add a voice for the inclusion of women in Church leadership roles, and for religious and lay women to have a right to vote at the Synod of Bishops. “Pope Francis has done exactly that. We have more women in prominent roles within the Vatican. Also, lay people — men, women and youth — will have the right to vote at the Synod of Bishops on Synodality,” she noted.

“I am happy, and I am grateful to God and to Pope Francis for this milestone. But above all, I am grateful for the inclusion of women from the global south, from Africa, and from Southern Africa in particular.”

The workload is definitely greater at the SACBC than anywhere else in the scope of her work. “I am still in the process of knowing other communications officers at the diocesan level. I am also in the process of building and strengthening relations with other Catholic and secular media, and communication between the office and other departments within the SACBC,” she said.

In the long run, her aims within the SACBC office includes ensuring that each diocese has a communications officer; to get the media consultors teams going; to ensure that every parish pastoral council has a communications officer who will ensure that those in the church pews are well-informed; to strengthen relations with Catholic and secular media both locally and internationally; to facilitate media workshops for young Catholics; and to encourage our youth to embrace and love their Catholic media.

“For now, those are the priorities. Once we have this established, then together, as the Southern African Church and as the people of God in our region, we can grow,” Sheila concluded.

Published in the October 2023 issue of The Southern Cross magazine