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Pope addresses Digital Generation: New Technologies, New Relationships
The Vatican has just published a message from Pope Benedict XVI in anticipation of the 43rd World Day of Communications.
New Technologies, New Relationships: Promoting a Culture of Respect, Dialogue and Friendship (January 24, 2009) is the theme for this year. Writes the Pope,
The new digital technologies are, indeed, bringing about fundamental shifts in patterns of communication and human relationships. These changes are particularly evident among those young people who have grown up with the new technologies and are at home in a digital world …
Pope Benedict addresses the digital generation and offers to them (and to all of us) ideas of how to use the new technologies for good “to promote human understanding and solidarity.”
These technologies are truly a gift to humanity and we must endeavour to ensure that the benefits they offer are put at the service of all human individuals and communities, especially those who are most disadvantaged and vulnerable.
While noting the many practical benefits of the new media and technologies, the Pope points out that the digital communication ultimately reflects our fundamental human desire to relate to one other.
This desire for communication and friendship is rooted in our very nature as human beings and cannot be adequately understood as a response to technical innovations…. When we find ourselves drawn towards other people, when we want to know more about them and make ourselves known to them, we are responding to God’s call – a call that is imprinted in our nature as beings created in the image and likeness of God, the God of communication and communion.
Pope Benedict encourages people “Who are active in the emerging environment of digital communication to commit themselves to promoting a culture of respect, dialogue and friendship.” He then goes on to explain what each of these three elements mean and concludes with an appeal to young Catholic believers to mirror the great Apostles and disciples of the early Church who brought the Good News of Jesus to the world by living the Gospel and proclaiming the Good News to all in the digital world.
I highly recommend reading the full text of the Pope’s message. What does it mean in terms of how we use Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, blogs, forums, text messaging, and other social networking technologies? How are we (Catholic sisters, parents, teachers, catechists, vocation directors, priests, and other Catholic leaders) present on these social networking sites and using the new technologies? Let us know what you think about the Pope’s message and what it’s call is to you.
P.S. Pope Benedict also just launched a Vatican YouTube channel. Read more at the LA Times.
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I am so glad that the Pope recognizes the good that can come from the internet! Nowadays, I have a really difficult time balancing between just enough internet and too much, but it brings me hope that many people can find God in this type of communication. Sadly, there is also material that is not of God on the internet, but to notice the good that it can bring gives me hope that one day we can change the face of this communication. I will sincerely try to communicate God’s love through my words which I write on the internet.
It’s truly awesome that pope B16 is pushing further JP2′s jest to “baptize” modern media.
This document got me thinking…in the Franciscan University I attend the Friars used to live in the building now composed of students. In some of the rooms you can still where there was sign posted on the wall right as you walk out that said “Enter Your Mission”. I thought it was so cool when my RA told me so I wrote that on a post-it note and put in on my computer.
)
Today it’s not enough to “Enter your Mission” in the classroom or wherever. We have to remember that where ever there is a possibility that two or more people can socialize there’s a possbility to continue our mission of serving God and showing His love to others.
So this bright pink post-it note is a reminder to do God’s work. (I also wrote JMJD- Jesus Mary Joesph St. Dominic-and yes it was a Dominican sister who taught me to do that
I found that I do more and more on the computer–and now I have added praying over the screen. I get so many prayer requests, read so much bad news and new crises that my hands are lifted in prayer nearly as much as they are poised over the keys!
I love the “Enter Your Mission” idea! It’s a shame that I never heard of that one, and I’ve been a Franciscan for 31 yrs and 2 weeks!
20+C+B+M+09 written above our doors; ashy or oily crosses on foreheads, dates carved into candles, JMJ, +JMJ+, AMGD, now JMJD on the tops of papers –I’ll have to add that to my list of “Catholic graffitti.” (=^D