truthfulness, accountability, sensitivity to human rights, and other relevant
principles and norms”.
16
4. Three decades ago Communio et Progressio pointed out that “modern
media offer new ways of confronting people with the message of the Gospel”.
17
Pope Paul VI said the Church “would feel guilty before the Lord” if it failed to
use the media for evangelization.
18
Pope John Paul II has called the media “the
first Areopagus of the modern age”, and declared that “it is not enough to use the
media simply to spread the Christian message and the Church’s authentic
teaching. It is also necessary to integrate that message into the ‘new culture’
created by modern communications”.
19
Doing that is all the more important
today, since not only do the media now strongly influence what people think
about life but also to a great extent “human experience itself is an experience of
media”.
20
All this applies to the Internet. And even though the world of social
communications “may at times seem at odds with the Christian message, it also
offers unique opportunities for proclaiming the saving truth of Christ to the
whole human family. Consider...the positive capacities of the Internet to carry
religious information and teaching beyond all barriers and frontiers. Such a wide
audience would have been beyond the wildest imaginings of those who preached
the Gospel before us... Catholics should not be afraid to throw open the doors of
social communications to Christ, so that his Good News may be heard from the
housetops of the world”.
21
II
OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES
Entering in particular, the document calls us to reflect in n. 5 to the various
opportunities that the use of the INTERNET offers for the diffusion of the Word
of God.
[...]
92
16
Etica nelle Comunicazioni Sociali, n. 26.
17
Communio et progressio, n. 128.
18
Esortazione Apostolica, Evangelii nuntiandi, n. 45.
19
Lettera Enciclica Redemptoris missio, n. 37.
20
Aetatis novae, n. 2.
21
G
IOVANNI
P
AOLO
II, Messaggio in occasione della XXXV Giornata Mondiale delle Comu-
nicazioni Sociali, n. 3, 27 maggio 2001.
5. Since announcing the Good News to people formed by a media culture
requires taking carefully into account the special characteristics of the media
themselves, the Church now needs to understand the Internet. This is necessary
in order to communicate effectively with people – especially young people –
who are steeped in the experience of this new technology, and also in order to
use it well.
[...]
But over and above these, there also are benefits more or less peculiar to
the Internet. It offers people direct and immediate access to important religious
and spiritual resources – great libraries and museums and places of worship, the
teaching documents of the Magisterium, the writings of the Fathers and Doctors
of the Church and the religious wisdom of the ages. It has a remarkable capacity
to overcome distance and isolation, bringing people into contact with likeminded
persons of good will who join in virtual communities of faith to encourage and
support one another. The Church can perform an important service to Catholics
and non-Catholics alike by the selection and transmission of useful data in this
medium.
[...]
A growing number of parishes, dioceses, religious congregations, and
church-related institutions, programs, and organizations of all kinds now make
effective use of the Internet for these and other purposes. Creative projects under
Church sponsorship exist in some places on the national and regional levels. The
Holy See has been active in this area for several years and is continuing to
expand and develop its Internet presence.
[...]
The No 6 deepens the bidirectional aspect of INTERNET: this is an aspect
already considered by the Second Vatican Council, by the Code of Canon Law
and by other recent documents of the Pontifical Council for Social
Communications.
[...]
Already, the two-way interactivity of the Internet is blurring the old
distinction between those who communicate and those who receive what is
communicated, and creating a situation in which, potentially at least, everyone
can do both. This is not the one-way, top-down communication of the past. As
more and more people become familiar with this characteristic of the Internet in
other areas of their lives, they can be expected also to look for it in regard to
religion and the Church. The technology is new, but the idea is not.
[...]
93
Ethics in Communications says: “A two-way flow of information and views
between pastors and faithful, freedom of expression sensitive to the well being
of the community and to the role of the Magisterium in fostering it, and
responsible public opinion all are important expressions of ‘the fundamental
right of dialogue and information within the Church’”. The Internet provides an
effective technological means of realizing this vision. Here, then, is an
instrument that can be put creatively to use for various aspects of administration
and governance. Along with opening up channels for the expression of public
opinion, we have in mind such things as consulting experts, preparing meetings,
and practicing collaboration in and among particular churches and religious
institutes on local, national, and international levels.
It is very important n°. 7 and n° 8 that help us to reflect about the necessity
of the education and formation to this means of communication which is not
lacking of negative aspect too.
Education and training regarding the Internet ought to be part of
comprehensive programs of media education available to members of the
Church. As much as possible, pastoral planning for social communications
should make provision for this training in the formation of seminarians, priests,
religious, and lay pastoral personnel as well as teachers, parents, and students.
Young people in particular need to be taught “not only to be good
Christians when they are recipients but also to be active in using all the aids to
communication that lie within the media...So, young people will be true citizens
of that age of social communications which has already begun” – an age in
which media are seen to be “part of a still unfolding culture whose full
implications are as yet imperfectly understood”.
Among the specific problems presented by the Internet is the presence of
hate sites devoted to defaming and attacking religious and ethnic groups.
[...]
Some of these target the Catholic Church. Like pornography and violence
in the media, Internet hate sites are “reflections of the dark side of a human
nature marred by sin”. And while respect for free expression may require
tolerating even voices of hatred up to a point, industry self-regulation – and,
where required, intervention by public authority – should establish and enforce
reasonable limits to what can be said.
The proliferation of web sites calling themselves Catholic creates a
problem of a different sort. As we have said, church-related groups should be
creatively present on the Internet; and well-motivated, well-informed individuals
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