and unofficial groups acting on their own initiative are entitled to be there as
well.
But it is confusing, to say the least, not to distinguish eccentric doctrinal
interpretations, idiosyncratic devotional practices, and ideological advocacy
bearing a ‘Catholic’ label from the authentic positions of the Church.
III
RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION
The Chapter III, in numbers 10, 11 and 12, offers important
recommendations, but also interesting words of encouragement to the Church
leaders, pastoral agents, educators, parents and especially to young people to be
open not only to the approach of INTERNET, but also to a proper depth of its
potential.
[...]
It is important, too, that people at all levels of the Church use the Internet
creatively to meet their responsibilities and help fulfill the Church’s mission.
Hanging back timidly from fear of technology or for some other reason is not
acceptable, in view of the very many positive possibilities of the Internet.
To pastoral personnel. Priests, deacons, religious, and lay pastoral workers
should have media education to increase their understanding of the impact of
social communications on individuals and society and help them acquire a
manner of communicating that speaks to the sensibilities and interests of people
in a media culture.
Today this clearly includes training regarding the Internet, including how to
use it in their work. They can also profit from websites offering theological
updating and pastoral suggestions.
[...]
To educators and catechists. The Pastoral Instruction Communio et
Progressio spoke of the “urgent duty” of Catholic schools to train
communicators and recipients of social communications in relevant Christian
principles. The same message has been repeated many times. In the age of the
Internet, with its enormous outreach and impact, the need is more urgent than
ever.
Catholic universities, colleges, schools, and educational programs at all
levels should provide courses for various groups – “seminarians, priests,
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religious brothers and sisters, and lay leaders...teachers, parents, and students” –
as well as more advanced training in communications technology, management,
ethics, and policy issues for individuals preparing for professional media work
or decision-making roles, including those who work in social communications
for the Church. Furthermore, we commend the issues and questions mentioned
above to the attention of scholars and researchers in relevant disciplines in
Catholic institutions of higher learning.
[...]
To children and young people. The Internet is a door opening on a
glamorous and exciting world with a powerful formative influence; but not
everything on the other side of the door is safe and wholesome and true.
“Children and young people should be open to formation regarding media,
resisting the easy path of uncritical passivity, peer pressure, and commercial
exploitation”. The young owe it to themselves – and to their parents and families
and friends, their pastors and teachers, and ultimately to God – to use the
Internet well.
The Internet places in the grasp of young people at an unusually early age
an immense capacity for doing good and doing harm, to themselves and others.
It can enrich their lives beyond the dreams of earlier generations and empower
them to enrich others’ lives in turn. It also can plunge them into consumerism,
pornographic and violent fantasy, and pathological isolation. Young people, as
has often been said, are the future of society and the Church. Good use of the
Internet can help prepare them for their responsibilities in both. But this will not
happen automatically. The Internet is not merely a medium of entertainment and
consumer gratification. It is a tool for accomplishing useful work, and the young
must learn to see it and use it as such. In cyberspace, at least as much as
anywhere else, they may be called on to go against the tide, practice counter-
culturalism, even suffer persecution for the sake of what is true and good.
To all persons of good will. Finally, then, we would suggest some virtues
that need to be cultivated by everyone who wants to make good use of the
Internet; their exercise should be based upon and guided by a realistic appraisal
of its contents.
Prudence is necessary in order clearly to see the implications – the
potential for good and evil – in this new medium and to respond creatively to its
challenges and opportunities.
Justice is needed, especially justice in working to close the digital divide –
the gap between the information-rich and the information-poor in today’s world.
This requires a commitment to the international common good, no less than the
“globalization of solidarity”.
Fortitude, courage, is necessary. This means standing up for truth in the
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face of religious and moral relativism, for altruism and generosity in the face of
individualistic consumerism, for decency in the face of sensuality and sin.
And temperance is needed – a self-disciplined approach to this
remarkable technological instrument, the Internet, so as to use it wisely and only
for good.
Reflecting on the Internet, as upon all the other media of social
communications, we recall that Christ is “the perfect communicator” – the norm
and model of the Church’s approach to communication, as well as the content
that the Church is obliged to communicate. “May Catholics involved in the
world of social communications preach the truth of Jesus ever more boldly from
the housetops, so that all men and women may hear about the love which is the
heart of God’s self-communication in Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and
today, and for ever”.
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