Today’s Nunday has an honorary nun guest — Brother Chris Valka, CSB, of the Congregation of Saint Basil. And yes, we have his picture! 
Chris recently spoke on Faith in Cyber Communities at St. Joseph’s College, University of Alberta, and was written up in the Western Catholic Reporter.
Valka presented historical highlights of the Church’s mostly positive views on communications.
“History not only gives us perspective, but it also conveys the optimistic stance the Church takes towards media. The Church has never seen the media as an obstacle,” he said.
People who cannot find answers at the institutional Church of brick and mortar are searching for answers in other places, including the cyber community. This gives people worldwide a place to gather and ask life’s tough questions. In spite of the great distance between them, they can debate, discuss and live out the answers.
Be sure to read Brother Chris’s other observations and ideas about new media and the Catholic Church in the article New media can break through barriers.
I had the pleasure of meeting Brother Chris back in 2007 when he interviewed me for his podcast series Conversations with Macrina:
A Discussion About Religious Life (June 23, 2007)
What do you think we religious should be doing online? Would you like us to do more with new media such as podcasts, live discussions, etc.? Give me some ideas about what would interest you, what you think would be helpful to people.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I think it’s great to have a little bit of everything. I personally love Busted Halo (a spiritual seekers site sponsored by the Paulists) because it’s very down to earth in approaching people seeking faith or people who already profess a faith (as the site has a lot of stuff geared to young Catholics such as articles, podcast, blog, and videos) without being imposing or forceful. One feels “invited” to learn about faith rather than “guilted into believing” like many other sites seem to do. And then of course you have a blog like this one :p which I love because it’s focused on the more positive, serious, and fun aspects of Catholic religious life and Catholic life in general without needing to throw stones at others (which turns me off to a good part of the Catholic blogosphere).
Long story short: I think religious should be welcome to use whatever medium at their disposal in reaching out to cyber communities (from youtube to blogging or live discussions which are helpful since we can talk to “the experts”) because as long as their reaching out is done humbly and sincerely, I feel they’ll see much good fruit spring forth from the proverbial tree or vine in helping people understand faith in their own pace and context of their own experience.
Such an important topic. Thank you Brother Chris! I think the world wide web is such new territory for the Church. Being a social worker, I feel there is so much to learn from it.
I believe it is playing more and more of a role for religious and the Church. You can find A-Z, literally. Some good, some not so good. This web page and blog are great! But the question remains, now what? How can we use the web to reach out and communicate to those growing in the faith? Seeking information? Seeking religious life? It is true, we are already doing it. But I still have so many questions on the how and what.
I have participated extensively on line in regards to the Church and vocations. I ran a vocation chat once a month in previous years, until my schedule got so crazy I was no longer able to do so. But the director of the site stated that he had never seen so many people seeking religious life and the priesthood until I had started the vocation section and chat. Very interesting.
I think too that maybe (this is just IMHO) some people feel they can better explore their spirituality in the relative anonymity provided by the Net. They might not feel comfortable having family and/or friends knowing about their inner quest for meaning and thus use online resources for such. There is nothing wrong with this, and it provides a needed service, I think. There is a risk, though (again, this is IMHO only), that one might become more dependant on the tools than on the goal they are meant to accomplish. Addictions to chatrooms do happen.
Having said that, there is definitely a lot of good at having so much available through the Net. That’s how I found a few of the religious orders with which I’m communicating.
And that’s how I found this web site.
Ray – I love Busted Halo, which is how I found Father Stan Fortuna’s sites and e-mails, most especially his weekly message in which he gives a video blessing while standing in front of a picture of “JPII” and Fr Stan’s whole body “raps” in full Franciscan dress.
I would love to see him on the streets of Harlem doing his priest thing. My parish priest here in New Orleans told me Fr Stan was down here after Katrina, gutting houses and clearing lots in the lower ninth (where our church is) in his full habit. I would love to have seen that. He totally satisfies my love of rap as an authentic form of American poetry (even though my appreciation is often more abstract than specific since this is a lot of “crap rap” out there, just as there is a lot of “bad” poetry out there) and reinforces my awareness that my awareness that my love poetry is an extension of my love of the liturgy.
And I would never have found him without the internet and Busted Halo.
Jean
Jean
Sister Julie – Thanks as always for this blog and your far-ranging posts, which have the potential to lead us all further and further into the world. I checked out Br. Chris Valka and came across a great blog (not updated for about a year but full of great resources: a list of social justice movies; formal Church documents on social justice teaching; and very smart, extensive thinking by Br Chris). I even found a quote, new to me, from Blessed Oscar Romero:
“We plant seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities. We cannot do everything. And there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and do it very well. It may be incomplete but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for God’s grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders. Ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own. – Blessed Oscar Romero
What a gorgeous statement both of religious life, consecrated or not, and of the value of communication, interaction, relationship in all forms, including via the internet.
Jean (but i couldn’t access your interview)
last: the blog i referenced is Bridges to Justice.