Conference: The Church’s presence on the internet

The Church is present on the internet because she is called to accompany and be a neighbour to every individual person. It is not about a communications strategy, but a response to her missionary vocation. Of course, the internet is not lacking in ambiguity and utopianism, and the challenges are demanding. Despite that, the Church does not cease from wanting to proclaim the good news of Jesus where people live.

About forty bishops and experts in social communications from Europe’s Bishops’ Conferences met in Athens at the invitation of His Grace Mgr Sebastianos Rossolatos, Archbishop of Athens, and His Lordship Mgr Dimitrios Salachas, Apostolic Exarch for Byzantine Rite Catholics in Greece, to reflect on the theme Communication as encounter, between authenticity and pragmatism. The meeting, promoted by CCEE’s Commission for Social Communications, was chaired by His Lordship Mgr José Ignacio Munilla Aguirre, Bishop of San Sebastian (Spain) and President of the CCEE Commission, and by Fr Michel Remery, CCEE Deputy General Secretary.  

In the Greek capital the participants were aided in their reflections by His Grace Mgr Claudio Celli, President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications; by Fr Antonio Spadaro SJ, director of the journal “La Civiltà Cattolica”; by Prof. Arturo Merayo Perez, lecturer in the Faculty of Communication and Information Science at the University of Murcia (Spain); and by Fr Roderick Vonhögen, founder of Star Quest Production Network and Trideo TV (Holland). In the course of the meeting there were also interventions from the Apostolic Nuncio to Greece, His Grace Mgr Edward Joseph Adams, and from Mr Alexandros Katsiaras, Director of the Church’s radio station in Greece.

It clearly emerged from the reports, testimonies and discussions that the internet has brought about an anthropological change which is reflected in the social and spiritual life of its users and which calls for a new approach to the internet on the part of the Church. Education in the correct use of technology and a balance in the Church’s presence in this digital field are the two themes which attracted most attention among the participants.

Faced with the risk – especially for the young, but not exclusively – of living the digital experience in an all-encompassing, absorbing and unique way means a greater commitment from the Church in educating to seeing the digital life as an opportunity for real relationships. In this sense the Church is called to re-interpret people’s lives in a dual dimension: physcial and digital. That will only happen to the extent that the internet is considered as an “area of life” and not just as a tool.
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Furthermore, the Church’s presence on the internet cannot insist only on content, forgetting the relational dimension (contact with users). And viceversa, it would be damaging to reduce the internet to simply a relational system, forgetting the content of the proclamation. In this sense Pope Francis is a good example of that balance required today in communication. He knew how to overcome this dichotomy because thanks to his natural relational capacity, directed at meeting every individual person, he succeeds in getting not just to people’s hearts but also to their minds, presenting in a clear, concise and coherent manner the message of salvation which is the person of Jesus Christ. In other words, the Church today is called to a balance integrating content and holder, the communicative empathy with the content which she communicates. 

During the meeting, the particpants also shared many experiences which revealed the happy union of these two dimensions. In fact the Church today is going through a moment of synthesis and integration of many on-going experiences. A characteristic example is the testimony given by Fr Roderick Vonhögen, who through his blogs and podcast on current mass media themes, from Harry Potter to the Star Wars saga, has managed to bring the good news of Jesus into many apparently ‘hostile’ environments. Currently, the Dutch priest is involved in the realisation of a new Trideo TV project aimed at internet communication through short videos. 
 
The meeting also saw a presentation of the work of the Greek Bishops’ Conference Media Office in the area of social communications, given by its director, Sebastianos Roussos. 

Even though it is a minority, the Catholic Church in Greece has grown considerably in numbers in recent years with the arrival of numerous immigrants. This has also led to different changes in the information offered, at the basis of which is the idea to make the various local communities co-responsible for and participants in church communication, thanks also to the use of new means of social communications. From the daily bulletin to the pluri-lingual portal (www.cathecclesia.gr), this responsible involvement of the local communities makes the communication of this small Church lively and above all dynamic, creating relationships and community. Recently the Church in Greece decided to launch a Web TV channel and create a smartphone App to promote spiritual paths, especially for the young generations. 

After a visit to the Athens Areopagus, where the participants recalled the more than ever topical Common Declaration of Saint John Paul II and His Beatitude Christodoulos on the Christian roots of Europe (2001), the participants went to Corinth (Wednesday 5 November). During the trip, His Lordship Mgr Dimitrios Salachas gave a reflection on The communication of Saint Paul, from the Areopagus to Corinth, demonstrating how the Apostle’s communication, a communicative model for the Church today, must help us to detect a renewed sense of unity of the human family which drives towards solidarity and a serious commitment for a more worthy life. 

Source: www.ccee.eu