Pope asks the faithful
to give the Internet a soul
(24 Apr 10 – RV) The need to give the Internet a soul and humanize the dynamics of the digital world was at the heart of Pope Benedict XVI’s message Saturday to participants in a conference on modern means of mass communication.
Promoted by the Italian Bishops Conference (CEI), “Digital Witness” draws together experts in information technology, social networking, web journalism and blogging to focus on the language we use and the way we communicate as Christians in the online society.
In his greeting to the Pope, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, CEI president and Archbishop of Genoa, greeted him on the anniversary of the formal start of his Petrine ministry, and said on behalf of the CEI and the convention participants, "We thank you for the strength that comes from your limpid Magisterium... especially in times like these when we are being tested, when, as you sau, we wish that God could be with us to defeat evil, while we enter into the mystery of Christ's suffering which redeems the world".
Pope Benedict told the 8,000 participants that the task of every believer who works in media, is to ensure the “quality of human contact, guaranteeing attention to people and their spiritual needs”.
“This is increasingly urgent in today’s world”, he said, at a time when Internet appears to have a “basically egalitarian” vocation, but at the same time, “marks a new divide", the "digital divide" that "separates the included from the excluded".
"The dangers of homologation and control, of intellectual and moral relativism, are also increasing, already recognizable in the decline of critical spirit, in truth reduced to a game of opinions, in the many forms of degradation and humiliation of the intimacy of the person."
Thus, said the Pope, we see, a "spiritual pollution" even as "we no longer look one another in the face”. So we must “overcome those collective dynamics that risk reducing people to "soulless bodies, objects of exchange and consumption”.
The new media must become a “humanizing factor”, focused "on promoting the dignity of persons and peoples". Only then, will "the epochal times we are experiencing be rich and fertile in new opportunities":
"Without fear we must set sail on the digital sea facing into the deep with the same passion that has governed the ship of the Church for two thousand years. Rather than for albeit necessary technical resources, we want to qualify ourselves by living in the digital world with a believer’s heart, helping to give a soul to the Internet’s incessant flow of communication".
Pope warns of Internet risks
VATICAN CITY, April 24 (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI said Saturday the Internet and the ongoing process of media convergence carry a risk of conformity of thought and control.
Benedict said that while the Internet is egalitarian and creates the opportunity to be informed and stay connected, it also comes with risks.
The Pontiff noted that the digital divide adds to the gap already separating wealthy nations from poor ones. He also mentioned the "dangers of conformity, of control, of moral and intellectual relativism, which can already be recognized in the decline of critical spirit."
The Pope was addressing a meeting on digital technologies and new media promoted by the Italian Bishops' Conference.
He urged the media to promote the dignity of peoples and put themselves at the service of the truth.
Benedict has tried to bring the Vatican into the Internet age and launched a YouTube channel last year.
Officials say the 83-year-old Pontiff also e-mails and surfs the Web.
[I can believe e-mail, because he simply would let Birgit Wansing or Georg Gaenswein type it in for him, but much as I hope he could, does anyone believe he has time to surf the Web at all? Probably, once in a while, with a jumbo monitor, and GG surfing some sites that the Holy Father might like to sample.]
Last year, the Pope made clear that he was disappointed that Vatican officials hadn't done a simple Internet search to discover the Holocaust-denying comments of an ultraconservative bishop before his excommunication was lifted.
[Again, I must insist they would not have found any if they surfed before January 21, they day the decree wa signed and the day on which a Swedish TV channel ran Wiliamson's interview. Then all the retrospective statements popped up!]
The case embarrassed the Vatican, and Benedict said on that occasion that the Holy See needed to make greater use of the Internet.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 25/04/2010 00:43]