Pope Benedict to promote using new media to evangelize

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Vatican City, Sep 29, 2009 / 07:53 pm (CNA).- Pope Benedict XVI plans to focus his message for the next World Day of Social Communications on the new media and how they can serve the spread of the Gospel. The papal message encourages priests especially to make use of the new means of communicating.

The full title of the Pope's theme for the January 24, 2010 celebration is, "The Priest and Pastoral Ministry in a Digital World: New Media at the Service of the Word." The Day is observed every year on the Feast of St. Francis of Sales, patron saint of journalists.

A statement published on Tuesday by the Vatican said that the goal of the Pope's message is "to invite priests in particular, during this Year for Priests and in the wake of the Twelfth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, to consider the new communications media as a possible resource for their ministry at the service of the Word. Likewise, it aims to encourage them to face the challenges arising from the new digital culture."

The Holy Father will also use his message to touch on how the “new communications media, if adequately understood and exploited, can offer priests and all pastoral care workers a wealth of data which was difficult to access before, and facilitate forms of collaboration and increased communion that were previously unthinkable," the Vatican says.

The Vatican statment goes on to point out that if the new media are wisely used, enlisting the help of experts in technology and the communications culture, they “can become - for priests and for all pastoral care workers - a valid and effective instrument for authentic and profound evangelization and communion."

Comments: 3

Subscriber comments:

Published by: oswald bule
ruteng, flores, ntt, Indonesia 10/01/2009 09:26 PM EST

The plan of Pope Benedict XVI is excellent. As a priest i have found so much help from the new media in maintaining and developing my personal spirituality and in doing the ministry to the people.

Published by: Nader Bedros
Cairo, Egypt 10/01/2009 04:36 AM EST

This is really a good step that the Catholic Church can take in order to have an effective role and influence over the world in the 21th century. However, I have a critical observation on what is mentioned by: "new media" and "new ways of communication", because satellite channels are being used by protestant ministries, since at least 15 years, which is considered a very long duration in the context of the modern world in terms of technology. I mean that we - the Catholic Church - need to move faster in this constantly evoluting world. On the other hand, beside the help of experts, media needs great financial resources, which necessitates extensive fund raisings, and marketing plans as well as the materials presented need to be creative, variable and open minded in order to succeed to attract different kind of spectators. Moreover, media should concentrate and focus on pure evangelization directing the message of salvation to the whole global world, and should avoid being restricted to speak only the classic Church doctrine in one extreme, or doing some social and intertaining activities in the other extreme. To conclude, media and communication technology are very effective and useful tools that can be used by the Church to practice the original role in evangelization.

Published by: Michael Jaffray King
Wiehl/Nord Rein West Fahlen/Germany 09/30/2009 01:08 PM EST

I have been an on line apologist for my Catholic faith for the last 2 years. As a convert I can see many truths from my Protestant Bible that I never saw in 40 years as a Protestant lay missionary. Now I can promote my faith on line. One of the greatest experts that I know on line is Father Robert Barron of Word on Fire Catholicism Project. I think it would be awesome if all priests use the Internet to communicate and promote the Catholic Faith, in particular emphasising the outstanding importance of the Eucharist which is widely misunderstood by Protestants and many Catholics too.

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