EDITORIAL: Evangelization 2.0

No, this isn’t a cheer for the former U.S. president, nor is it an error left by a typesetter rushing to close out of a computer document. (You see, command-W is a common keystroke for closing a Microsoft Word document, for example. Mistakes happen.)

Once banished to the near-end of our alphabet, these letters — which stand for World Wide Web and are found at the beginning of just about every Web site address on the planet — have jumped to the forefront of our public consciousness, radically transforming the way people all over the world communicate.

By punching these simple, three-syllable characters into a Web browser, followed by a defined destination (take catholicsun.org for example, please), computer users set forth on a limitless journey to bring the shared knowledge and experiences of much of humankind right to the screen displayed on their desktop, laptop, iPhone or what have you.

Over the past two decades, the Catholic Church has done a decent enough job in embracing the digital medium. Most if not all dioceses have a Web site with information about its local Church. The same holds true for parishes, which mostly contain Mass times, current events, ministry information and sometimes even photos chronicling the life of a parish.

The Vatican Web site, www.vatican.va, as one would expect, has a wealth of information on the Catholic Church — news, information and encyclicals from throughout the Church’s history barely scratch the surface of what is offered here.

But advances in technology, interactivity and presentation of the Internet race forward at broadband speeds — leaving it difficult not only for the Church, but for most other organizations, to keep up with the latest trends.

It wasn’t so long ago that uttering the names of today’s most popular Web site destinations — YouTube, Twitter, Facebook — would result in an error message in the form of a blank stare from whomever was in earshot. Actually, that still could be the case in some circles.

It is important for the Church to have a stake in this modern media frontier, not just in terms of what’s trendy or fashionable at the moment, but for the “new questions, new interests and new pastoral necessities” that have come about from modern media, according to Archbishop Claudio Celli, president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Social Communications. These were among his remarks March 9 during a five-day meeting in Rome. Bishops from 82 countries gathered to consider creating a new document on communications in the age of “new media,” which is loosely defined as modern, interactive Web sites.

“I think the Church needs to enter into a dialogue that is increasingly rich and proactive, a dialogue of life with people who are seeking, who are distant and who would like to find a message that is closer and more suitable to their path,” he said.

It’s not just the method of communication that’s changing, he said, but the attitudes and expectations of an increasingly larger number of Web users.

Many Internet-savvy Catholics here in our own diocese are finding a vibrant faith community online. Churchgoers are sharing information on Twitter, youth leaders are using Facebook to organize events, and there are some who are taking their faith experiences to the world by sharing videos on YouTube.

The Vatican, for its part, has recently jumped into the fray as well with its own YouTube channel. And Catholic News Service, a part of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, is active on Facebook and Twitter. So are others like EWTN and Catholic Charities. And the innovative Catholics Come Home media campaign, thanks in large part to its interactive Web site, is responsible for bringing an estimated 92,000 inactive Catholics back to the Church in the Diocese of Phoenix.

But for all these new Web sites and their interesting takes on rewriting our English lexicon, they are merely another step in helping us get to a place of greater importance.

Archbishop George H. Niederauer of San Francisco, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ communications committee and a participant at the Vatican seminar, got to the heart of the matter: the ultimate focus should be on the liturgy and the eucharistic celebration.

“So the center of faith is not going to be the Internet,” he said. “But the Internet is going to be a 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.”

It’s good to know that despite the prevailing trends in communication, the fads that can vary from month to month, we remain fixed on the Real Presence of Christ, which is the source and summit of our faith, and the unmovable and unchanging center of our existence.

Feedback | Print This Page | Back to Top