Digital missionaries may provide a way forward

Digital missionaries could help the Church become part of the digital world.

In an update about the current Youth Synod meeting in Rome, Dr Paolo Ruffini, Prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Communications, says a constant theme is focusing on digital communications.

Ruffini says the issue of the pastoral care of young people in the digital world was also discussed, with the Synod considering how the Church can be active in the world of social media where young people are.

He says the Church wants to dwell in the digital world in an official, serious, structured way.

“How should the Church form missionaries for the digital world and have people in the digital world who are protagonists of freedom and responsibility?” he asks.

While the answers to the questions have not yet emerged, David Bartimej Tencer, who is the bishop of Reykjavík, Iceland, says the Church is positive about the digital world.

Using Iceland as an example, Tencer says they would be lost without the digital world: he says catechism is organised through Skype.

In this way, he can sit in front of a computer and contact and talk to young people.

He says he also encourages young people to download the Bible onto their phones.

Tencer sees these as positive developments.

Source

Additional reading

News category: World.

Tags: , ,