The children were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of Facebook, the Vatican, YouTube heresies, the Church Fathers, Twitter hash-tags, the New Apologetics, blogs, and papal encyclicals danced in their heads!
We’re moving along on our upcoming book, The Church and New Media: Engaging the Digital Revolution, which is still on pace to be published this Fall by Our Sunday Visitor. My fellow book contributors are busy finishing their chapters before the end of the month while I’m wrapping up the book’s Introduction and Conclusion.
I’ve also finished up the sidebars that will be scattered throughout the book, which ended up totaling over 11,000 words. There are more than 25 of these sidebars–300-500 words each–which highlight some of the many innovators, ministries, and movements using New Media to serve the Church.
Each chapter will also feature excerpts from Church documents dealing with media. I read through a number of conciliar documents, papal encyclicals, episcopal statements, and World Day of Communications messages to find the best of the best content. Here are some of the documents I’ve excerpted so far:
– Communio Et Progressio – Vatican II Post-Conciliar (1971)
– 24th World Day of Communications – Pope John Paul II (1990)
– Redemptoris Missio – Pope John Paul II (1990)
– 26th World Day of Communications – Pope John Paul II (1992)
– Pastoral Instruction on Social Communications – Pontifical Council for Social Communications (1992)
– 36th World Day of Communications – Pope John Paul II (2002)
– 37th World Day of Communications – Pope John Paul II (2003)
– The Rapid Development – Pope John Paul II (2005)
– 40th World Day of Communications – Pope Benedict XVI (2006)
– 43th World Day of Communications – Pope Benedict XVI (2009)
– 44th World Day of Communications – Pope Benedict XVI (2010)
– Social Media Guidelines – USCCB (2010)
The more I work on the book, the more excited I am for it to be released. I hope it will lead the Church as a whole, and Christians as individuals, to use these new technologies for evangelization, spiritual formation, community development, and movements of justice.
And I hope the book encourages Christians to “be not afraid” of New Media–as Pope John Paul II would advise–but instead to set sail on the ‘digital sea’ with confidence and invigoration. Christ must be “proclaimed from the housetops” of the online world, announced to the “digital Areopagus”!