Pope’s message for 44th World Day of Social Communications

(January 23, 2010) Pope Benedict XVI has invited Catholic priests around the world to make use of the new communication technologies of the digital world to introduce people to the life of the Church and help their contemporaries discover the face of Christ. However he noted that in doing so, the efficacy of the preaching of the Gospel will depend basically on their spirituality and closeness to Christ. Pope Benedict made the observation in his message for the Catholic Church’s 44th World Day of Communications, which will be marked on May 16th this year. The message on the theme ‘The Priest and Pastoral Ministry in a Digital World: New Media at the Service of the Word,” was released at a press conference in the Vatican on Saturday. The Pope urged priests to use all multimedia tools at their disposal to preach the Gospel and engage in dialogue with people of other religions and cultures. “The spread of multimedia communications and its rich 'menu of options' might make us think it sufficient simply to be present on the Web,” but the Pope said priests are “challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources,”such as images, videos, animated features, blogs and websites, which alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis. The Holy Father said young priests should become familiar with new media while still in the seminary, though he stressed that the use of new technologies must reflect theological and spiritual principles. “Priests present in the world of digital communications should be less notable for their media savvy than for their priestly heart, their closeness to Christ,” he added.