Vatican City, Dec 7, 2013 / 11:45 am
Today Pope Francis met with members of the Pontifical Council for the Laity who had gathered to discuss the theme, "Announcing Christ in the digital age."
"The internet is a widespread reality, complex and in continual evolution, and its development re-proposes the ever-present question of the relationship between faith and culture," the Pope said Dec. 7 to the participants of the council's 26th plenary assembly.
"Already during the first centuries of Christianity, the Church wanted to face the extraordinary heritage of the Greek culture. Facing a very profound philosophy and an educational method of exceptional value, but soaked in pagan elements, the (early Christian) Fathers were not closed to debate, but on the other hand neither did they surrender to compromise with certain ideas contrary to faith," the Pope explained.
"They knew, rather, to identify and assimilate the more elevated concepts, transforming them from the inside by the light of the Word of God."