Internet, the way of essentials

It might be best that all of us Catholic communicators forever relinquish the self-referential haven and start to bravely address the open sea of new communication. That digital world is an authentic living “environment”. It is a realm that is already transforming us, according to experts. A world where the ability to prompt relations, truthful language that is the fruit of authenticity, the need to expose oneself and be subjected to public judgment, not only makes the difference but also signals the possibility of furthering dialogue with the rest of the world. After all, the great intuition of the conciliar document “Inter Mirifica”, that 50 years ago welcomed the means of communication inside the Church with a warm embrace, is turning a new page today. It is a promising page for the future. It’s enough to read the first words of the decree to understand that the digital challenge we are called to face has in that page a fundamental pillar. The introduction approved by the Council fathers accurately states: “Man’s genius has, with God’s help, produced marvellous technical inventions from creation, especially in our times. The Church, our mother, is particularly interested in those which directly touch man’s spirit and which have opened up new avenues of easy communication of all kinds of news, of ideas and orientations. Chief among them are those means of communication which of their nature can reach and influence not merely single individuals but the very masses and even the whole of human society. These are the press, the cinema, radio, television and others of a like nature. These can rightly be called “the means of social communication”.Thus we cannot fail to seize the opportunity to include the wonderful realm of the Internet into that of the press, cinema, radio and television, not in order to evangelize it but to live it in order to evangelize it, as suggested by Monsignor Claudio Maria Celli, President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. Perhaps with the aim, which is not out of reach, expressed by the European Bishops with responsibility for social communications during the meeting in Barcelona, “to evangelize the soul of Europe”. It is a historical opportunity for the various Churches that share the challenge of modernity. It is a challenge that the Christian communities cannot be subjected to but should rather live with greater awareness. In Barcelona, thanks to the contributions and the stories regarding the implementation of new technologies in pastoral and diocesan life, the breath of a Church that proceeds swiftly towards the enculturation of faith was widely perceived. By seizing every opportunity offered by modern technology to reach out to those who are distant, those to whom the interruption of the transmission of faith (an example of which is the crisis in marriage and the outburst of de facto unions) has in fact stripped the gift of the encounter with Jesus. This new world, these men unaware of Jesus, can be reached by those who choose the way of the Internet, in the awareness of finding new paths of narration. To this regard, the perspective of playful online narration for children is especially interesting.It is not a question of undertaking daring marketing endeavors (which is unfit to the Gospel) but rather of bravely following the path traced by Pope Francis. It is that very “strategy of the essentials” that makes him understood by all. In Barcelona it was said that “Francis is a Pope who doesn’t need interpreters. None of his words, homelies, answers or speeches needs a dictionary or an expert theologian who will explain what is being said. In fact, when someone tries to interpret the Pope’s words, to contextualize them, to confer meaning or change their tone, that person is suspected of manipulation. One thing is for sure: that style finds its way in the news of the day, in any newscast in the world”.   It could be said that is not something that everyone can do… It’s true. But why not give it a try? (*) editor-in-chief Sir Europe