9.24.2008

Information Technology is a Gift From God, Says the Bishop

My Jesuit scholastic friend Jason - who has recently switched coasts with me as he's at Fordham & I'm in Seattle - pointed me in the direction of this post on Whispers in the Loggia which references this article by Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin:
Many Church people today are slow about IT - some seem proud to say that they will never master the techniques. But they have nothing to be proud of. Information technology is a true gift of God to our times, mediated though the creative genius of men and women. Not to use it, to refuse to understand it, is to reject a gift of God.

We must embrace new technologies and new methods of communications; Thanks to the internet we are both consumers and operators of global communications and we have a responsibility to ensure the truth is at the heart of all our communications.

It is almost ninety years since the former British newspaper editor, CP Scott wrote that “comment is free, but facts are sacred,” in that piece he said also newspaper “may educate, stimulate, assist or it may do the opposite.” The same holds true for websites today.

As well as promoting the truth in our Catholic publications and websites, we each have a responsibility to learn to determine and discern which websites, among the millions on offer to us, promote truth in their communications. And it is a lesson we must urgently teach our children. From a very early age, even before starting school – children are embracing new technologies; they do so before they have been educated and guided in discerning what is truthful, respectful, and dignified in our world, from millions of sites and hours of information available to them that promote the opposite.

Jesus said “You will know the truth and the truth will make you free,” ; and as the Holy Father urged in his message for World Communications Day, Let us ask the Holy spirit to raise up courageous communicators and authentic witnesses to the truth, faithful to Christ’s mandate and enthusiastic for the message of the faith. Read the whole article

Let the church (and blogosphere) say Amen!

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