CHURCH ENCOURAGED TO USE DIGITAL MEDIA, TEACH ETHICAL COMMUNICATION

VATICAN : As the Catholic Church works to become more present in the new digital media, it must also help teach people to be ethical communicators, said Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state.
Formation is crucial, he said , especially now that the world of communication is crossing new “ frontiers that are in need of serious ethical grounding”.
The cardinal’s remarks came on march 13 at the end of fife – day meeting in Rome to discuss how the church should respond to the challenges and opportunities presented by modern media.
The seminar was sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Social Communications and drew bishops from 82 countries.
One aim of the gathering was to set the groundwork for a possible document by the council that would update its 1992 pastoral instruction, Aetatis Novae ( At the Dawn of a New Era).
In his talk, cardinal Bertone said that the world has recently experienced enormous revolutions in communication technology that have “ radically transformed , if not overturned,” the media and communications landscape .
Any kind of new document or instruction “ would be of little service without the constant contribution of educating pastoral workers – priests, religious, laypeople- who are personally involved in the field of media,” he said.
The head of the pontifical council, Archbishop Claudio Celli, said in opening remarks that it would be impractical for the Vatican to make its Web presence interactive because of the flood of questions and comments that would come in. he said such interactivity would be more easily done on a local level.
Archbishop George H.Niederauer of San Francisco , chairman of the US bishops’ communications committee and a participant at the Vatican seminar said that overhauling and revamping diocesan Websites is an important investment.
Making them easy to navigate , informative, up – to- date and rich in offering and links is “ going to pay big dividends for dioceses and archdioceses across the country , “ he said.
He said dioceses have to “ make easily available to their people the faith – taught , presented, illustrated , expressed and witnessed – in ways that are very appealing not just to people who would reach for traditional newspaper, but to Catholics who have perhaps been away from the church awhile, young Catholics seeking an expression of the faith that does speak to them and broken them” and others.
Fr Lawrence Andrew SJ, who represented the Malaysia – Singapore – Brunei conference said that the media culture is all pervasive and it is not ad added component of our modern day living .it is the Church ‘s duty to meet the many who have been caught up in this web of self sufficiency by limiting themselves to what they choose to see, hear and interact. hence we must help people to transcend themselves and be connected with others beyond their needs, and connect them to the presence of God in media.
he echoed Cardinal bertone who said at the seminar that communication is central to all of us because God who loves us communication is central to all of us because God who loves us communicates with us every day. The church receiving its mandate from Christ therefore must energetically communicate with the world , or it ceases to exist.
But while the Church learns to encounter, engage with and evangelize today’s “ electronic public square , “ he said it must never stop doing what it has been doing for millennia because no matter how sophisticated new technology gets, “ you can’t receive the body and blood of Jesus Christ over the Internet.”
The liturgy and Eucharistic celebration are the summit and fountain of Christian life, he said , which means everything the Church does must in turn flow from it.
“ So the centre of faith is not going to be the Internet, “ he said.
“ But the Internet is going to be wonderful vehicle for people to climb that summit – to the experience of the Eucharist, of Church and faith – and it’s going to be a place that can help that flowing forth as well, “ he said.
Also present at this conference was Augustine Lourdusamy , who is President of SIGNIS World. - CNS