The Forum Newspaper

The Forum Newspapers Orlu is the official newspaper of the Catholic Diocese of Orlu. It serves as a diocesan platform for evangelization, information, Catholic education, pastoral communication, and community engagement.

Through news reports, pastoral messages, interviews, reflections, announcements, and feature stories, Forum Newspapers helps document the life and mission of the Diocese. It shares the work of parishes, institutions, organizations, clergy, religious, and lay faithful, while promoting the Gospel and strengthening Catholic identity across Orlu Diocese and beyond.

History of The Forum Newspaper

The Forum Newspapers was initially created in the 1980s during the episcopacy of Most Rev. Gregory O. Ochiagha with the title: “Orlu Diocese Today”. It was published and circulated as a newsletter with Late Very Rev. Fr. Damian Opara as the coordinator but later stopped publication.
Later on, precisely in 1994, publication resumed but this time as an official newspaper of the Diocese. Rev. Fr. Boniface Duru became the pioneer editor-in-chief of the Newspaper and it was a monthly publication. Bishop Ochiagha named it “The Forum”, drawing inspiration from St. Paul’s mission at Ephesus where the people established a forum for sharing ideas, and dialogue to get to the truth. The Bishop therefore gave the motto as “Rallying for the Truth.”

Fr. Anthony Osuji took over from Fr. Boniface Duru and purchased the first office car for the Forum Newspapers. He was succeeded by Fr. Eugene Dike in 2004 later Fr. Cyril Obiji from 2005 to 2006.

In 2007, while Fr. Maurice Emelu was the editor, The Forum Newspapers won the Best Catholic Newspaper of the Year. With the purchase of some printing equipment under the leadership of Fr. Maurice Emelu, the printing department of the Forum Newspapers was established
and named the “N-Trinity Press”. The N-Trinity Press became the official publisher of The Forum Newspapers.

All these while, the Forum Newspaper was located at Knight of St. Mulumba Hall, situated beside the Diocesan Catholic Secretariat within the premises of the Holy Trinity Cathedral, Orlu. Later in 2014, under the leadership of Fr. Cyriacus Uzochukwu, the Forum Newspaper moved to its permanent site at the Archangel Gabriel Media Centre located beside the Orlu Cheshire Home opposite Orlu Stadium.

On the 10th of March, 2021, the Forum Newspaper was separated from the N-Trinity Press making both two separate entities with two separate leaderships.

Presently, the Editor-in-Chief of the Forum Newspapers is Rev. Fr. Anthony I. Añumnu, succeeding his predecessor, Rev. Fr. Kenneth Obialisi.

Vision

To be a reliable tool for disseminating true and authentic information and a great mean of evangelization through the media.

Mission

To keep our readers (Catholics and non-Catholics) abreast with information about the events in the society and in the Church through objective reporting, insightful columns and editorials; to teach the true teachings of the Catholic Church, as well as promoting a peaceful, just and well informed society using enormous resources to enhance knowledge of the Church and society.

Editor: Fr. Anthony Añumnu
Institution: Catholic Diocese of Orlu
Department: Diocesan Communications Department / N-Trinity Press
Email: forumfamily@yahoo.com, theforumnewspapers@gmail.com
Phone: 0905 9966 649, 08169794626
Address: Diocesan Catholic Secretariat, P.O. Box 430, Orlu, Imo State, Nigeria
Mission: Evangelization, Catholic communication, diocesan news, education, and community service.