Priest Bloggers

This year's World Communications Day coincides with the Year for Priests, and so our Holy Father has released a letter entitled, "The Priest and Pastoral Ministry in a Digital World: New Media at the Service of the Word."

Pope Benedict notes that "all priests have as their primary duty the proclamation of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God, and the communication of his saving grace in the sacraments." In the new technologies "priests can discover new possibilities for carrying out their ministry to and for the Word of God" - possibilities which "make us appreciate all the more Saint Paul's exclamation: "Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel" (1 Cor 9:16).

Here are a couple of highlights from the text of the letter:

- Priests 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.

- Priests can rightly be expected to be present in the world of digital communications as faithful witnesses to the Gospel, exercising their proper role as leaders of communities which increasingly express themselves with the different "voices" provided by the digital marketplace.

- Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites) which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis.

- Using new communication technologies, priests can introduce people to the life of the Church and help our contemporaries to discover the face of Christ. They will best achieve this aim if they learn, from the time of their formation, how to use these technologies in a competent and appropriate way, shaped by sound theological insights and reflecting a strong priestly spirituality grounded in constant dialogue with the Lord.

- Priests present in the world of digital communications should be less notable for their media savvy than for their priestly heart, their closeness to Christ. This will not only enliven their pastoral outreach, but also will give a "soul" to the fabric of communications that makes up the "Web".

I certainly hope that this little corner of the web fulfills some of these goals, and I especially pray (and ask you to pray) that this last point might be true of me. May the Lord make all of us "enthusiastic heralds of the Gospel in the new "agorà" which the current media are opening up."