Yet for some 10,000 Chilean believers, God is not only alive and well, but he shows up on their phones every day via the popular messaging service WhatsApp.

The success of the initiative suggests that while the abuse scandals may have badly frayed confidence in the institutional church and its leadership, it has not killed off the basic human hunger for faith and community.

Called "The Gospel of the Day," the free service began five years ago, and though it includes seven priests and mobilizes an entire family, the whole operation is basically a one-woman show, who's not shy about saying that if it weren't for the Holy Spirit, she would have thrown the entire thing in the trash more than once.

"It can be frustrating, as people don't understand that behind this ‘service' there's one person who perhaps that day is in the hospital because her son has appendicitis," she told Crux.

Since it's an anonymous service, a decision made in part to combat her own curiosity to know who's on the WhatsApp list, she requested her identity be withheld too.

It all began, she said, when the "Argentine side of the family" began sending her three-minute meditations of the day's Gospel, all by the same priest.

She liked the meditations so much that she began forwarding them to her friends, who in time, invited others to join a "homemade group."

Out of the blue, however, the priest at one point announced he'd stop sending his meditations.

"Another person, who turned out to be a priest I knew but who I had no idea was on the list, sent me a note in private saying, ‘What are you going to do with all these souls?'" she said.

The two met to talk about it, and "somehow, I ended up agreeing to run it."

Together, they summoned seven different priests, both diocesan and from various religious orders or movements, including a Jesuit and a priest of Opus Dei.

"This was a bit historic itself, as the clergy in Santiago is as divided as society, and those who belong to one camp don't really mix with those in the other," she said.

She sent a message to the original group, saying that a Chilean version of the WhatsApp thread would soon be launched.

Some 700 people, most of whom she didn't know, signed up!

A few months later, Radio Maria Chile decided to broadcast the three-minute meditations and gave her phone number to the audience.

In one day, another 2,000 people signed up!

This was five years ago, and the service has only grown since then.

She's changed phones, internet plans and some of the priests have rotated, but only twice she wasn't able to send the daily meditations, though for a period she "contracted" her daughter to help out.

"It's the thing I've been most faithful to my entire life," she said.

"I mean, other than my husband. But I can avoid my husband for a day if the need arises. If I avoid the Gospel of the Day, I get thousands of messages from people, not all of them understanding, asking ‘Where is it?'" Continue reading

Theatres in Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Rotorua, Taupo, Tokoroa, Wellington, Nelson and Christchurch screened the movie which was produced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and directed by Blair Treu.

The Latter-day Saints' Pacific Area Director of Public Affairs, Richard Hunter, says the movie's release is "a great way for members and guests of the Church to celebrate this year's 175th anniversary of the first Latter-day Saint to arrive in the region."

But, "Meet the Mormons" is not a documentary but an informercial, "meant less to inform than to introduce a sales pitch." says Sean Deans writing in the Salt Lake Tribune.

He says it does not tackle any of the issues faced by the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, (LDS) or answer any of the questions about the church raised by those who are not true believers.

" The movie is simply a string of vignettes, all nicely told by director Blair Treu, telling the stories of six members of the LDS Church whose lives and work are influenced by their Mormon faith."

"The movie, like the church's 'I'm a Mormon' ad campaign that it resembles, is great at presenting its six subjects as just regular folks who credit their faith for giving their lives foundation."

"Nothing wrong with that, except there's little that differentiates Mormonism from other denominations."

"There are fleeting mentions of doctrine in Jones' narration — like the Book of Mormon or the fact that Mormons don't drink."

"But there's nothing in the movie about Mormon history, and no discussion of the unique aspects of LDS doctrine about which non-Mormons tend to be the most curious."

Traditional Mormon missionaries are familiar to most New Zealanders. They dress in distinctive way and go from house house in pairs knocking on doors, explaining why their Lord was the one true Lord.

Now the LDS successfully embraced the new media.

The Mormon church's unprecedented experiment in Internet-based proselytizing, has become a wildly successful undertaking and is the subject of a feature story in The Huffington Post.

Last June, thanks in large part to the wave a converts added by internet missionaries, the church announced it would put previously banned tools like Facebook and text messaging into the hands of all its missionaries.

Source

• Scoop
• Scoop
• sltrib.com
• Huffington Post
• Image: byu.edu

He theorized that the two may be connected. Headline: "Is the Internet bad for religion?"

It's utter nonsense, of course. The decline of mainline churches began in 1965, not in the 1990s when the Internet became commercially available.

The Internet is providing new tools for creative faith leaders to use. Blogs, e-letters, social media posts, videos, data management

If there is a problem it is noncreative leaders who fear new ways and have concluded that new means wrong. Read More

"For children, we really want them to be exposed to the life of Jesus in a way that they can enjoy and connect with," he told CNA recently.

The app hit the iTunes store June 5 and features chapters of Jesus' public ministry from the Bible that engages children and helps relay the story to them.

Inspired to make the App by how much his own children loved the iPad, Dusing says as well as being fun and interactive, the App tells the story in a way children understand.

As well as giving children something to do with an iPad it gives them something they can benefit from, he said.

Frequently, he said, Christian educational materials are marketed as "multivitamins." In other words, it's good for the kids but may not necessarily "taste good."

This application, on the other hand, is more like "chocolate cake with vitamins in it," Dusing said. "The kids will enjoy it a lot more and it's really good."

Dusing said even his two year-old daughter enjoys "reading" it over and over again.

The App costs NZ$5.29 and is available in the New Zealand iTunes store.

Source:

• CNA

Until the 1990s, access to the general population through the media was controlled by the gatekeepers of newspapers, radio and television. Now this barrier has been bypassed by the new media — Internet-based, available to everyone, faster and cheaper than anything we had before.

Ironically, the Church, whose reason for existence involves communicating, doesn't seem to understand communications very well (at least in New Zealand). Even the annual World Communications Day messages seem to be pretty well ignored.

There is little point in complaining about what the media communicate about the Church when the Church itself is often inept at communicating its own message. This applies to both internal communications (to the Church membership) and external communications (to society as a whole).

As for the Church's relationship with the media, the only policy that works in the long run is one of constructive engagement. In a world in which most people get their information from the mass media, it simply isn't an option to stand aside.

This applies especially now to social media. Engaging in social media requires courage, because these media are uncontrollable and not the place for those stuck in an old-media mindset.

But, as a writer in the United States National Catholic Register pointed out a couple of years ago, "The problem right now is that the Church is largely not part of the conversation — because it chooses not to be. So whatever control it could have, it foregoes."

To quote Angela Salt, director of communications for Britain's Millennium Commission, "If the Church isn't in the media more — in soaps, dramas and documentaries — then, for many people, it doesn't exist. If it's not in your personal experience and not in the TV you watch, on the radio you listen to, or the papers you read, it's as though it's not there. That's why the Church should seek to be in the media — to remind people that it exists and that God is a good option for them."

Having an appealing and credible Christian character on Shortland Street — or a talented and credible Christian band on the pub circuit — might achieve more than an expensive advertising campaign aimed at young Kiwis.

In the field of communication — in this age of multi-media opportunities — the Church in New Zealand seems to have deliberately chosen retrenchment (as indicated by the vacuum left following the dismantling of Catholic Communications).

Perhaps this policy is based on financial considerations. Apart from the efforts of Caritas and the Nathaniel Centre, and the occasional bishops' statements, it is difficult to think of any sector of the institutional Catholic Church that currently brings Catholic teaching and practice into the public square.

As a result, our society misses out on much of the great contribution the Church could make to discussion and debate; and many of the positive contributions our parishes, dioceses and religious orders make to the community are unreported.

What should the Church be doing?

The need for a professional and well-organised communications operation is obvious. Some of the other Christian churches understand this so much better than we do.

I am not suggesting reinventing the old model of Catholic Communications, and certainly not a sort of fire-fighting operation focused mainly on reacting to external events and other people's agendas. What is needed, I believe, is more of a communications ministry that is proactive and has a long-term vision, incorporating evangelisation.

Ideally, it should operate both internally — helping Catholics to better understand what the Church teaches and how its teachings apply to the everyday lives of Kiwi Catholics — and externally — enhancing the knowledge, understanding and acceptance of the Christian message among the general population (it is the message that is important, not the "Church" in the institutional sense).

Such a communications ministry need not have a high public profile; in fact much of its mission could be achieved beneath the public radar.

Websites, social media such as Facebook and Twitter, media relations (including training for Church spokespeople) and collaboration with organisations such as the Catholic Enquiry Centre are just a few of the activities that could be undertaken.

Such a communications operation could succeed only if it were directed by people with hands-on experience in communications — e.g., journalism, information technology, broadcasting, public relations, advertising — who had sufficient freedom to act professionally. I believe it would be possible to find a nucleus of Catholics from these fields who have a vision for evangelisation and are also social media-savvy.

Of course, there are many Catholics — and I would include myself — who should never appear in front of a TV camera as a spokesperson for the Church, at least not without appropriate training. An inexperienced or untrained person can do a lot of harm to the public perception of the Church.

A realistic view

The idea of such a communications ministry being set up and managed under the New Zealand Catholic Bishops' Conference might be too great a stretch. If established on a diocesan basis, its effectiveness would necessarily be restricted.

However I wonder whether a proposal for such a ministry, with a precisely-drafted statement of purpose and a realistic business plan, might obtain private funding and a contractual relationship with the bishops' conference.

Assuming that evangelisation is considered to be a priority — as the Great Commission (Matthew: 28:19) indicates it should be — we should expect the Church in New Zealand to devote more personnel and much greater resources to this purpose than at present.

— Pat McCarthy was founding editor of NZ Catholic and now directs the pilgrimage website www.seetheholyland.net

The Catholic Bishops of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands tackled the issue of new media and social networks on the second day of their Annual General Meeting on 10 April at Alexishafen, Madang.

Fr. Giorgio Licini PIME, CBC Secretary for Social Communications, and Fr. Phil Gibbs SVD, CBC Secretary for Social Concerns, introduced the topic referring also to the 2013 World Communication Day Message by Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, "Social Networks: Portals of Truth and Faith: News Spaces for Evangelization".

While it is clear that Social Communication is now definitely interactive, the main problem for PNG and Solomon Islands still lies in weak, unreliable and expensive Internet services. Young people, however, already live online in urban areas while remote places also gain progressive access to the world wide web through Digicel services.

Source

• The Bishops' Conference of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands
• Image: Eudemic.com

As mobile phone use sweeps through the Pacific it is bringing a revolution of change in its wake.

"In PNG in April social media brought together thousands of people for a political protest. Islanders have become more literate, more familiar with market prices and their social worlds have expanded," says John Connell who is professor of geography in the school of geosciences at the University of Sydney.

Connell says the Pacific is changing dramatically. To our north Bougainville will have a referendum in a couple of years to determine if it will choose independence from PNG; New Caledonia will contemplate a similar question on independence from France.

"The reason my geological colleagues were investigating the seabed was because it is so poorly explored. Mars and the moon are better known," Connell says.

But, he adds "The human landscape, too, is suffering the same fate. We simply know too little - and perhaps care too little - about this ever-changing and diverse region at our doorsteps."

Sadly, the few news stories in recent months have almost exclusively focused on the latter-day "Pacific solution" utilising Papua New Guinea's Manus Island and Nauru.

Source

• Keith Jackson and Friends: PNG Attutude
• Image: The Fiji Times

Ban Jabok-Ban Nong Leg templein the northeatern Surin province is now trying to send a message by making Buddha hold an iPad in their next statue, says The Bangkok Post:

Traditionally, Phra Sivali, a pose of the Buddha, carries a walking stick, an umbrella and a bowl, and is worshipped for those seeking love, luck and prosperity.

But the one to be built by the temple will have one hand carrying the umbrella — and the other one clutches one of the innovative best sellers launched by the late Steve Jobs instead of the stick.

This might seem like an attention grabbing gimmick, and let's face it, it kind of is. But the message the temple wants to send is good and forward-facing: they want to stress that monks need to embrace the technology of the modern world in getting their message across.

"Monks have to catch up with the changes and use those gadgets like the iPad to lure the new generation to the temple. Monks can use them to teach Dhamma to those who live their life with new communication technologies," a spokesman of the temple said.

Source: Bangkok Post

In 2011, a new smartphone app aimed to support preparation for and the practice of confession ended up generating more confusion than contrition when a not particularly social design invited people to conclude that absolution was granted by way of the Confession app itself rather than, according to Catholic teaching, through the mediation of the priest.

No wonder Pope Benedict XVI's Message for World Communications Day earlier this year highlighted silence and listening—the heart of Christian practices of contemplation—by way of encouraging the development of "a kind of 'eco-system' that maintains a just equilibrium between silence, words, images and sounds." And, we might add, actions.

Blog a bit, tweet a bit, share your favorite liturgical recipes on Facebook if you like, the Holy Father seemed to be saying to the Catholic faithful, but once in a while, for the love of God, zip it.

All in all, not a bad idea, but I suspect the silence His Holiness had in mind had nothing to do with the kind of creepy, panoptical Facebook surveillance that led the Rev. Gary LaMoine of Assumption Church in Barnesville, Minnesota to prevent 17-year-old Lennon Cihak from receiving the sacrament of confirmation, a rite of passage usually administered to Catholic teenagers to "perfect the work of baptism" (the first of the sacraments, in Roman Catholic teaching) and mark their maturity as Catholic Christians. Likewise, the boy's family members have been prevented from receiving the sacrament of Holy Communion at the church.

LaMoine singled out Cihak on the basis of a photo posted on Facebook which showed his support for efforts to defeat a proposed amendment to the Minnesota constitution that would have defined marriage exclusively as between one woman and one man. The amendment was defeated by voters, with no small amount of support from progressive Catholics, who rejected energetic lobbying from the church hierarchy on behalf of the proposed amendment.

In some Minnesota parishes, for instance, an expensively produced DVD mailed to parishioners in support of the now-failed amendment was returned in collection baskets with "Give to the poor," "Care for those in need," or bible verses such as "Love one another as I have loved you" (John 13:24) written on the packaging.

The DVD give-back was more than a gesture of spiritual or political defiance. It also highlighted the ethic of mutuality and equanimity at the heart of new social communication practices that have emerged from our engagements in digital social media locales like the Facebook page that became the focus of sacramental censure for Cihak and his family.

The ethical environment of the new media world is early in its evolution, with occasions of cyber-bullying, cyber-stalking, and other nefarious digitally-enabled transgressions rightly causing concern. But the overall culture of the internet, as it has morphed into social and mobile forms that have shaped relational practice both on- and offline, has generally retained the democratic, collaborative, transparent, and dialogical ethos of its earliest enthusiasts.

No reasonable communicator these days, then, expects a passive mass of consumers to gobble up a magisterially-broadcast message whole, not having the opportunity to share their own, potentially influential, perspectives. Hence those Twitter hashtags at the bottom of your TV screen. We expect interactivity. We assume someone's listening. We live ready for conversation.

If you blast out a message—whether it's a DVD, a tweet, or a smoke signal—and you think that's the end of it, you haven't been paying attention for the past several years to how communication works these days. So, perhaps the Pope is right: you ought to be listening more.

Likewise, it would take fairly rigorous monastic seclusion to have missed the memo on transparency as a virtue that is considered essential for ethical living in the digitally-integrated world. In the past decade, the Roman Catholic clergy abuse, News of the Worldphone-hacking, and Wikileaks scandals have marked new, and only very incompletely explored, ethical territory as we sort out the best ways to balance personal privacy and public safety as these are impacted by our engagement with new media.

But even given difficulties defining necessary and appropriate boundaries of personal, professional, and institutional transparency, we can see the virtue of transparency overall as having a stabilizing ethical function that invites openness and honesty while discouraging secretiveness and duplicity.

When Lennon Cihak felt moved to share his opposition to the proposed Minnesota marriage inequality amendment, he may have been inviting conversation or at least the nodding engagement that the Facebook "like" button offers. Indeed, many of his Facebook friends apparently "liked" or commented on the post without (so far) sacramental repercussions from Fr. LaMoine.

Yet Cihak had no reason to expect clerical surveillance in a social community where the expression of personal perspectives is rich relational currency. It functions not merely as self-construction or -revelation, but as digital generosity which enriches relationships as it invites further engagement—in the best of cases, even with those of differing perspectives.

Father James Martin, SJ, for instance, criticized LeMoine's actions against Cihak and his family on both Facebook and Twitter, tweeting "If you deny the sacraments to those who favor same-sex marriage, you must also deny it to those who fail to forgive." His Facebook page has spilled over with conversation—some of it heated, but most of it respectful—on the weight of Catholic teachings on sexuality in particular, and full acceptance of all of the Church's teachings in general, in decisions regarding access to the sacraments.

There is arguably something sacramental in this dialogical practice, at least some sort of "visible and invisible grace" pointing to the kind of compassion, love, and justice that is at the root of all Christian teaching. Christians, Roman Catholic or otherwise, draw these ethically essential virtues from the model of Jesus Christ. For LeMoine to ignore them at the intersection of his sacerdotal and social media practice is profoundly disturbing to the equilibrium for which Pope Benedict argued. Some might even say "sinful."

Source

• Elizabeth Drescher
• Image: Fr Stephen Smuts

- Elizabeth Drescher's research on the ethics of digital social media participation is supported by a generous grant from the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University.

In his own life lately, Schram says he has been dealing with some heavy stuff, that caused him to wonder what it would be like to have the powers of God, to just fix things by snapping ones fingers, or just tapping a screen!

From there, Schramm went to the idea of "answering prayers" from a screen tap, and after thinking about prayer and doing a few Google searches for it, and he came up with the name "Benediction," which he remembers from his childhood as a blessing, a prayer meant to send people on their way, happy and ready to deal with the world.

It's with this background, that Schramm had his theme for the game. He'd be answering the prayers of supplicants as the player, the App is God with infinite power, answering prayers as needed.

A reviewer at Cult of Mac says the game has three things going for it.

• Benediction is a clean game with a simplicity of purpose
• Secondly, the narrative is of an artist, bringing issues from his own life into his work.
• Finally, there's a progression mechanic in the game. Each game has a limited amount of "god power," which gets used up each tap. The idea is to make your taps, which use up this energy source, clear the most amount of smiley faces as possible, maximizing your score. As you earn points for each game, they add up and can be traded for power ups, also connected to the four different colors in the game, which do some neat things like double your scored points, drop single colors down from the top, or recharge your god power.

Download the App. It's free.

Source: Cult of Mac

"We are deeply convinced that our Catholic Faith in the Lord Jesus is the answer today, for all people, of all ages," said Garrett Johnson, the manager of Catholic Link's new English-language site.

He said the site invites visitors to "discover the truths of the faith that are literally all around them" that speak to them through sports, music, school, friendship or at Church.

"We try to express this through the diversity of subjects, tones, and sources of our videos," said Johnson, who is an American student of philosophy and theology in Rome.

The site collects various streaming videos from sites like YouTube and offers commentaries and interpretations. The site suggests how the videos can be used for Catholic ministry.

Categories include videos about Jesus, the Catholic Church and the Catholic faith, as well as Christian life and family. Other topics include faith and science, pro-life issues, apologetics, recommended movies, music and art, and humorous videos. Continue reading

Image: Catholic Link

Catholic Link's website in English

The parish's two busy churches, St Andrew's in Bicknacre and St Mary's in Woodham Ferrers currently "borrow" retired clergy and vicars from neighbouring parishes.

They have made repeated attempts to recruit a new vicar since the Rev Mary Cottee retired in June 2011.

Now villagers have made a video appealing for suitable candidates - using a cardboard cut-out to show exactly where the new clergyman will fit in.

The video -featuring nearly the whole village - opens with one parishioner being told off for the director for making jokes about the graveyard being the "dead centre of the village".

In his second take he says: "Here we are in St Mary's churchyard. It's a beautiful churchyard as you can see, but we have a grave situation - we have no vicar." Continue reading

Church Resources and Vodafone recently built on their existing relationship and concluded negotiations that continue to offer free calls amongst all Church Resources members, but also adds the choice of a range of different mobile call plan options.

"In tough economic times Vodafone is playing our tune", said Church Resources General Manger, Fr John Murphy.

"Every dollar saved is a dollar church groups don't have to earn."

Murphy said the existing plans brought cost efficiencies when talking among ourselves, but he thinks these new plans will save even more money and make church workers more efficient in their ministry.

"These plans enable us to not only talk free to other members of our ministry team, but beyond. They're the Vatican II of church talk, we can now talk to others."

Murphy expects a little bit of a settling in time. "We've already had one user who initially went for the cheapest option, then saw the potential and asked to be upgraded."

Nigel Pounds, Vodafone Wellington Area Sales Manager, is very pleased the Church Resources account stayed with Vodafone.

"We are absolutely over the moon, to be able to continue providing Telecommunication services to Church Resources."

"Our goal is to ensure that we are offering great value and great service to Church Resources as well as continuing to deliver innovation that helps Church Resources do its thing better".

Pound's optimism seems 'on the mark' as initial feedback from the service is all positive.

"What I like is I can talk and not worry about it", said Brother Matt Morris.

Morris who is Head of Science and Manager of the First XV at St Patrick's College Wellington, sees immediate advantage in the new choice of plans.

"Free calls to landlines, and 500 free mobile minutes a month is a big help in a busy school."

Fr Pete Roe, a consultant with the Emergency Services in Wellington says a fixed amount for calls and a generous data allowance will make managing his costs that much easier.

Challenge 2000 leader Bridget Roche is very excited about the changes and is also moving their landlines and broadband to Vodafone.

"We struggle to get funding for our infrastructural telecommunications costs and yet they are so important for the effectiveness, safety and quality of our work. The $8,000 pa we'll save is 'really big' money to us".

It's early days, but Roche is already visualising which front line children and youth programmes will benefit because of these savings.

"We've been planning some exciting youth development programmes to run over summer, but not sure how we might fund them so this is wonderful news".

"There is a God", she said.

Church Resources General Manger John Murphy says the range of plans we now offer, on top of the free Talkzone, means this is the best value mobile proposition in the Church at the moment.

"No longer does one size fit all, Church Resources has a plan to suit all church workers' needs," he said.

The Church Resources mobile, landline, and broadband packages are available through Church Resources and available to all Church organisations throughout New Zealand.

Economic downturns are not only hard on the pocketbook; they are hard on the soul. That's where Catholic radio is making a difference, supporters say. Continue reading

The study, published on "Expansion", shows that unlike the Dalai Lama, almost half of the Holy Father's online content has a 'negative tone' and a 'prejudicial impact'.

The research was carried out using a 'common conceptual model' focussing on three elements: personal image, religious life and communication.

The results show that online videos and social networks give a 'balanced' image of the Dalai Lama, whereas the descriptions of Pope Benedict were "emotional and negative".

Almost half of the content relating to Pope Benedict (48.74%) has a negative tone and prejudicial impact while only 7% was seen as positive. The remaining 44% was judged to be neutral.

The Dalai Lama's qualitative and quantitive results show him to be significantly more popular and the emotional impact of his words were seen to be generally more balanced in favour of positivity.

The picture was no different on the social networks, the Dalai Lama having 4.4m fans across 290 pages and 71 groups on Facebook, compared with Holy Father's 236,000 fans across 154 pages and 62 active groups on Facebook.

In the area of 'active followers', both religious leaders shared some similarity, with Pope Benedict coming out slightly ahead. The Holy Father's active followers are recorded at 1.8%, whereas the Dalai Lama's active following was just 1.7%.

Sources

• Vatican Insider
• Image: Zimbio

The move, announced by Director General of Vatican Radio, Fr Federico Lombardi, SJ, is to happen on July 1.

Lombardi said newer developments in communications technology meant the traditional radio broadcasts were no longer needed.

"Webcasting and satellite transmissions, along with rebroadcasting by local, regional and national radio stations, guarantee the widest possible outreach to Vatican Radio's programming and services. Which is why Vatican Radio believes the time has come to reduce its reliance on traditional technologies, like short- and medium-wave broadcasts, and to develop its resources in new directions," said Lombardi.

According to Lombardi, these broadcasts account for about 50% of the Radio and Television Centre's transmission time, and while Short Wave transmissions will be further reduced over the next few years the Vatican has no intention to cut the service to the likes of the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

The reduction in these broadcasts will delight the people of Santa Maria di Galeria, the neighbourhood where broadcast facility is located. Residents have long complained that the high levels of electromagnetic emissions endanger their health.

In an apparently separate move, and at the direction of Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the daily news bulletin, VIS, (Vatican Information Service) will no longer be distributed. Staff are being reassigned to the Holy See Press Office or the staff of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications news portal.

The 60,000 subscribers to VIS will have their subscriptions transferred to receive bulletins from the Holy See Press Office.

Sources

• News.va
• News.va
• Image: Bilgrimage

"We know that the Church has lost some of its pizzazz," Dolan said.

"We have to refresh and rekindle that faith."

Pope Benedict chose Dolan to give a keynote address on the new evangelization, a pet project of the Holy Father.

Dolan outlined "a creative strategy of evangelization," calling upon Church leaders to proclaim the faith with clarity and confidence.

"The good news was that triumphalism in the Church was dead. The bad news was that, so was confidence!"

He called for a Church marked by confidence, tempered by humility and the recognition that the faithful, too, need constantly to be evangelised.

"We gather as missionaries, as evangelisers," he told the assembled Cardinals.

The Church, he suggested, needs to sweep out fire and brimstone for a little, for some fun.

Dolan stressed that content is just as important as the medium.

"Instead of the Church being seen as pointing out what's bad all the time, we should point out what's good," he said.

"The Church used to be a place of celebration more than it is today," Dolan said.

"Baptisms, communions, confirmations, weddings — all are cause for celebrations. The church isn't just for funerals."

A day after Dolan's speech, he and 21 others were made cardinals at a consistory ceremony at St. Peter's Basilica. As part of the ceremony they received their "red hat," (Biretta), and gold ring.

Sources

• NY Daily News
• NY Post
• Reuters
• Image: NY Times

It's a narrative with which I have an enormous amount of sympathy, for as a female blogger I find that my comments box fills up with remarks of a sexually abusive nature with alarming alacrity.

Comments tend to centre around my personal appearance, which, somewhat paradoxically, is apparently both repellent and inviting of sexual advances.

I am quite clearly sexually frustrated and repressed, they suggest, and in need of a therapeutic sexual encounter, one that will have the effect of relieving my obvious sexual tension and have the added desired effect of altering my abhorrent Catholic views on the nature of sex and sexuality.

Sexual violence is a prominent feature, either to myself, or even more shockingly to my children; a comment received last week stated that it was a great shame that my children had never been sexually abused, which was obviously required in order to make me understand the severity of the clerical abuse scandal and make me understand the iniquitous nature of the Catholic Church.

As a Catholic blogger, I experience something of a double - or even triple - whammy effect. The abuse I receive is centred around my faith, my gender and to a certain degree my marriage.

Continue reading Catholic women need thick skins online

Image: Chuck Warnock

Dulles developed five models, drawing on a range of theological schools and traditions, both Protestant and Catholic, to illuminate different aspects of the church. His models included church as institution, mystical communion, sacrament, herald, and servant. Dulles was careful to point out that no single model, by itself, adequately paints a complete picture of the church; each contains important insights about the nature of the church.

But he also stressed that the particular models he articulated, although comprising relatively timeless truths that have stood up for millennia, are not immutable. "To immure oneself behind a fixed theological position is humanly and spiritually disastrous," Dulles wrote. "The images and forms of Christian life will continue to change, as they have in previous centuries. In a healthy community of faith, the production of new myths and symbols goes on apace."

In our time, the explosion of new media — and in particular the ability of digital media to collapse time and space and to create real-time global connections — offers a 21st century model that may helpfully supplement older paradigms for understanding the church.

Continue reading New Models of the Church in a New Media World

Sources

• Image: la vu du toit

And among America's great institutions, the Catholic Church looms large as another arena for the reconciling of our physical and digital experiences. The American Catholic Church represents nearly a quarter of the population; some 68 million people across 18,000 parish churches within 195 dioceses in 50 states.

Catholics under 30, who embody the future of the Church, are true digital natives. They experience life in both the physical and digital space, with real world experiences like the Mass amplified across online profiles and communities, sparking curiosity and conversation among people who expect to be able to find answers (at least, orthodox clarity of information) as simply as they search for an address or pay a bill.

The digital life, in other words, impacts lines of thinking and personal formation. This leads to an inescapable conclusion: the Catholic Church is missing a tremendous opportunity.

The dioceses, and especially the major Archdioceses in cities like Philadelphia and Los Angeles — the organs of the Church's unique central management — have a chance to take a cue from New York City's hiring of Ms. Sterne to recruit "Directors of Digital Strategy" of their own.

Pope Benedict XVI has made the new evangelization a cornerstone of his papacy. This is the challenge of carrying the Gospel message with a new zeal and urgency to all people, everywhere. What simpler way to begin answering this call than to make the local Church relevant in the digital space — the lives — of her people?

So what of this New Evangelisation and a Digital Strategy for American Catholic Dioceses

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