The Gospel passes also through the Internet” “

“The Church is present on the internet because she is called to accompany and be a neighbour to every individual person. It is not about a communications strategy, but a response to her missionary vocation”. It was reiterated by some forty bishops and experts in social communications of Bishops’ Conferences in Europe who gathered in Athens from November 3-5 on the initiative of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences (CCEE), to reflect on the theme “Communication as encounter, between encounter, authenticity and concreteness”. “Obviously – the bishops declare in the final statement released by CCEE -, the Internet is not lacking in ambiguity and utopianism, and the challenges are demanding. Despite that, the Church does not cease from wanting to proclaim the good news of Jesus where people live”. Participants were aided in their reflections, inter alia, by Monsignor Claudio Celli, President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, and by Father Antonio Spadaro, chief-editor of the journal “Civiltà Cattolica”. Education to the correct use of technology and balance in the presence of the Church in the digital environment are two themes that most attracted participants’ attention. “Environment” and “experience”. The Web “is not a tool” but “an environment of experience” which “is increasingly becoming an integrating part of daily life”, underlined the Editor-in-chief of Civiltà Cattolica, Fr Antonio Spadaro, in his speech. It’s a “connective tissue of human experience” that “influences man’s modus cogitandi”. It is therefore legitimate to ask if at the time of search engines, where answers are at our fingertips, the Web could be a realm to live and proclaim the Gospel. For Spadaro “Christian proclamation today risks presenting one in many messages, one in many answers”. “Rather than presenting the Gospel as the book that contains all answers, we should learn to present it as the book that contains all the right questions”. The real challenge for the Church, according to Spadaro, is to “assume an ever more communicative and participatory form”, since “communicating doesn’t mean transmitting but sharing”. Therefore, the Church in the Web “is not called to ‘broadcast’ religious content but to ‘share’ the Gospel. It is also necessary to bear in mind the risk “of living the digital experience in an all-encompassing” way. This means “a greater commitment from the Church in educating to seeing the digital life as an opportunity for real relationships”. Relational experience. The presence of the Church on the Internet and the Presence of Pope Francis: the bishops pointed out that the Church “cannot insist only on content, forgetting the relational dimension (contact with users). From this perspective – goes on the CCEE bishops’ declaration – Pope Francis is a good example of that balance required today in communication”. The Pope -European bishops point out – “knew how to overcome this dichotomy because thanks to his natural relational capacity, directed at meeting every individual person, he succeeds in getting not just to people’s hearts but also to their minds, presenting in a clear, concise and coherent manner the message of salvation which is the person of Jesus Christ”. From news bulletins to web TVs. During the meeting participants shared numerous experiences that include that of Dutch Fr Roderick Vonhögen, whose blogs and podcast on themes regarding the current mass culture, ranging from Harry Potter to the Star Wars saga, managed to bring the Good News of Jesus into apparently “hostile” environments. At present the priest is involved in a new project, Trideo TV, aimed at web-communication with short videos. Although it is a minority, the Catholic Church in Greece has managed to carry out a set of positive changes in its informative offer, underlying the idea whereby the local communities are co-responsible and participatory of ecclesial communication also thanks to the use of the new social communication media. From the daily news bulletin to the Multilanguage portal (www.cathecclesia.gr), the involvement of local communities makes the communication of this small Church agile and, most of all, dynamic, prompting relationships and community involvement. Recently, the Greek Church has decided to set up a web-TV along with an app for smartphones with the purpose of promoting spiritual paths for the young generations in particular.