Media Release

Mangaluru, Sep 7: Cyber Safety Seminar for the parishioners of Neermarga parish was organized by the Commission for Social Communication and the Commission for Women on September 4 that prepared parents to effectually supervise their children on social media sites, protect them from online threats, and bring technological balance back to their homes.

The Holy Eucharist was celebrated by Fr Anil Ivan Fernandes – director, Canara Communication Centre, Mangaluru and the Holy Hour led by Fr Anil Canute D Mello, parish priest. The entire parish community placed themselves in the presence of the Eucharistic Lord to thank and praise Him for His countless blessings and to obtain graces.

The workshop commenced with an invocation by the church Choir - seeking the benisons of the omnipresent, omnipotent, and the omniscient followed by lighting a ceremonious lamp by Fr Anil D Mello, Fr Anil Ivan Fernandes, keynote speaker of the day, Ravi Saldanha and Prakash Pereira – vice president and secretary of Parish Pastoral Council, Zita Usha Fernandes and Prasad Vas- coordinators of Commission for Women and Commission for Social Communication respectively.

Fr Anil D'Mello spoke about Carlo Acutis, a Catholic Italian teenager who died in 2006, was beatified on October 10, 2020 in Assisi. The internet to Carlo was a means of Evangelization - another space in which he was able to transmit God. Using his computer skills, Carlo designed an Online Eucharistic Miracles and thereby Carlo’s example offers a roadmap to young people wondering how they can live Holy Lives in this day and age. He further emphasized on positive and negative effects of technology that was indeed galvanizing.

Prasad Vas introduced Fr Anil Ivan Fernandes to the gathering. Fr Anil Fernandes spoke at length about digital well-being app— its working, benefits and setting up of parental controls on child’s phone using digital wellbeing and the google family link app. He discussed basic concepts - Cyberspace and Cybersecurity, URL (Uniform Resource Locator) - Functions, Parts and Examples. He spotlighted on the differences between real and fake websites, spam and phishing emails and email spam trigger words to avoid. He further underlined the different techniques to generate passwords. He clarified all the doubts and answered all the queries raised by the participants. 

On the whole the workshop taught the participants ways to protect computer operating systems, networks and data from cyber attacks that was indeed invigorating.

Pramith D Souza, Jelroy Vas, Lester Saldanha, Ancita Crasta and Astel Crasta helped in the smooth running of the event. Gretta Vas compered the programme. Prasad welcomed the esteemed guests and Wilfred Lobo and Zita Usha Fernandes proposed the vote of thanks.