Pope Francis: Use internet to offer "real reasons for hope"
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Saturday met with the participants of the 26th
Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, meeting under the theme
“Proclaiming Christ in the digital age.”
Pope Francis said the rise and development
of the internet raises the question of the relationship between faith and culture.
Looking
back to the first centuries of Christianity, the Pope pointed out Christians encountered
the “extraordinary legacy” of Greek culture.
“Faced with philosophies of great
profundity and educational methods of great value – although steeped in pagan elements,
the Fathers did not shut them out, nor on the other hand, did they compromise with
ideas contrary to the Faith,” Pope Francis said. “Instead, they learned to recognize
and assimilate these higher concepts and transform them in the light of God’s Word,
actually implementing what Saint Paul asks: Test all things and hold fast to that
which is good.”
He said this also applies to the internet.
“You must
test everything, knowing that you will surely find counterfeits, illusions and dangerous
traps to avoid,” Pope Francis said. “But, guided by the Holy Spirit, we will discover
valuable opportunities to lead people to the luminous face of the Lord. Among the
possibilities offered by digital communication, the most important is the proclamation
of the Gospel.”
He said it is not enough to acquire technological skills, however
important. He said the internet must be used to meet “often hurting or lost” real
people and offer them “real reasons for hope.”
“The announcement [of the Gospel]
requires authentic human relationships and leads along the path to a personal encounter
with the Lord,” he said.
“Therefore, the internet is not enough; technology
is not enough,” Pope Francis continued. “This, however, does not mean that the Church's
presence online is useless; on the contrary, it is essential to be present, always
in an evangelical way, in what, for many, especially young people, has become a sort
of living environment; to awaken the irrepressible questions of the heart about the
meaning of existence; and to show the way that leads to Him who is the answer, the
Divine Mercy made flesh, the Lord Jesus.”