When it comes to technology, the Catholic Church has usually been an early adopter. It used the codex in the first centuries, the printing press in the fifteenth century, radio and television in the twentieth century, and was an early pioneer on the Internet. Through the annual World Communications Day, which began in 1967, the Church has also encouraged Catholics to use modern tools like email, social media, and blogs.
But for Pope Benedict XVI, it’s time to move beyond exhortations and to start walking the talk. In a surprising move, the Pope has decided to go where no pontiff has gone before.
He’s started his own blog.
The reasons for this new project are many, according to the Pope:
“Catholics stand at the threshold of a new era: as new technologies create deeper forms of relationship across greater distances, they are called to respond pastorally by putting the media ever more effectively at the service of the Word.
A blog is powerful way I can proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis.”
The new blog, which will launch in May at PopeBlog.com, sports social media integration and a classic parchment design. The site uses the acclaimed Papyrus font, suggesting both sophistication and antiquity.
While new to the Pope, blogging is not a novelty for the greater Church. Several other bishops and cardinals have been blogging for years and there are thousands of blogs run by lay Catholics. However what makes the Pope’s blog so intriguing is Benedict’s intention to personally participate in the comment boxes.
“The new technologies have opened the way for dialogue between people from different countries, cultures, and religions. The new digital arena and its associated comment boxes will allow me to encounter and to know other’s traditions and values.
Such encounters will require honest and appropriate forms of expression together with attentive and respectful listening. The dialogue must be rooted in a genuine and mutual searching for truth.”
Officials from the Pontifical Council for Social Communications originally planned to run the blog themselves, much as they do for the Pope’s official Twitter account at @Pope2YouVatican. But the Pope has been insistent that he personally write and engage the comments.
“The great Apostles and their disciples brought the Good News of Jesus to the Greek and Roman world through word of mouth. My venerable predecessor Pope John Paul II mastered the television and the radio. Through my blog I can similarly witness to the joy of Jesus Christ through personal writing and, through commenting, evangelize the new “digital continent.”
However the project isn’t without challenges. Like any new blogger, the Pope admits confusion.
“Though I know several languages, the so-called HTML is difficult to master. For example, I hit Enter and the software yields two line breaks, not one. In addition, these networks exist to facilitate forms of co-operation between people from different geographical and cultural contexts, enabling them to deepen their common humanity and their sense of shared responsibility for the good of all. I’m having trouble determining how Chuck Norris fits into that.”
Since the site doesn’t launch until May, the Pope has yet to engage any comment box interlocutors or the expected anti-Catholic trolls. But if his early comments are telling, it seems he’s more than ready.
“Human hearts are yearning for a world where love endures, where gifts are shared, where unity is built, where freedom finds meaning in truth, and where identity is found in respectful communion. That’s what I aim to provide through my blog and comment boxes to all citizens of the digital world. There will be those, however, for whom I reserve the banhammer’s sweet purgative iron.”
For more great stories check out:
– Brantly Millegan at “Young, Evangelical, and Catholic”
– Brent Stubbs at “Almost Not Catholic”
– David Bates at “Restless Pilgrim”
– Devin Rose at “St. Joseph’s Vanguard”
– Joe Heschmeyer at “Shameless Popery”
(Image Credit: St. Louis Review)
