Evangelization and Catholic Media

Votive Mass of the Queen of Apostles opened our day. Then we began the presentations. I will blog them in order although they will move down the feed as I go!

- The Vatican and Digital Media: Fr. Paul Tighe

Thoughtful ignorance to thoughtfull uncertaintly. We are encouraged to use new media, the experiment and to learn.  Fr. is part of the team for the @Pontifex The Pope received a lot of attention for the twitter account. It is where we need to be - to bring the church into the arena. This is worth doing. This is not a fad. We are close to 10 million followers in all languages. The Latin feed is for those who love playing around with Latin tweets. Instead it received so many followers! There is a lot of retweeting, like the scattering of the seed. News.va is getting revised to continue updating its format and its feed. 50-60 thousand people go on each day. The Pope App allows you to see the Pope and watch events live. "The Pope in your pocket" though this Pope is in nobodies pocket. Facebook is interesting. The most interest is around spirituality. One message of the Pope, the New Evangelization Conference in the Philippines- Pope's first English presentation. There were 250,000 shares within the half-hour.  Our youth are expressing themselves, forming relationships and creating community in another way. A change in communication itself. It is the user who is determining where we are going or not going with these developments. We don't know which platforms will develop. It is changing the church's nature in its manifestations. Benedict said theologians have to reflect on this because theology is always a reflection on how our culture is changing. Change that is similar to the changes in the way the younger generation is. "christians in social media are becoming citizens in the arena - citizens who fit in, who don't stick out, etc. also bring faith into this reality. Digital is very real. Increasing numbers of people are engaged. It is an existential dimension of their lives.   We need to rethink what we are doing. We need to learn the new  language for the digital continent - how we have our conversations. We grew up with the idea of the pulpit. We were at the center and you were out there listening. New Media is different - it is shared and that is how it gets out there. It is interactive. We have to engage the questions. Most of these conversations are happening in the common forum. We don't know who is listening. Trying to make scenes.. Pope to listen, to converse and to encourage in the digital world. So many people have need for encouragement. We don't text very well - encyclicals etc, as a church. In a digital arena we need words images and sounds. Before we were literate we were v good with beauty - stained glass, music ... "warm peoples hearts" says Benedict. Give them a lift and something that gives them pleasure. The icons we use do not presume we know what we are talking about anymore: the words - lent, confession, Vatican II. We don't want to lose the theological language but need entry level language..