Last Updated:Friday - 09/24/2010

A new era of Church media

Via the Internet today, you can see real-time images of the shrine of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Web cameras posted at these sites - and thousands more - send a steady stream of images over the Internet. It's impossible to know what impact these omnipresent Web cameras will have on humanity or where the never-ending development in communications technology will lead. The only thing we can say with certainty is that for the Church to continue its mission to "make disciples of all nations" it must continue to be part of the communications revolution.

In his message for World Communications Day, June 4, Pope John Paul says, "Proclamation (of God's word) today must take place in and through the media." The trouble is that media today are so diverse that no one medium is sufficient to reach all people. Today's older generation is still largely reliant on TV, radio and print, but teens are abandoning TV in droves for the Internet.

The Web is interactive, but it is also largely dependent on the written word to convey information. A recent study has found that Internet users focus first and most often - not as is often assumed on photos and graphics - but on text. The Internet, even more than newspapers, requires a high quality written word to attract and hold its audience.

One can hope that the Internet will stoke the fires of rational debate in our society, fires that have largely been quenched by the rapid-fire succession of images and the instillment of passivity in audiences that have been the hallmark of the TV era. If so, that bodes well for the Church which asks the most fundamental, thought-provoking questions of all and which answers those questions in a manner that can withstand rigorous intellectual scrutiny.

To date, the Church's efforts to use the Internet have largely been in the form of a proliferation of Websites. Websites - essentially static presentations of information and images - are certainly a step in the right direction. But more innovative approaches are also necessary. Some innovation is coming from an isolated Benedictine monastery in New Mexico that has set up nextscribe.com to raise tens of millions of dollars and to attract the highly-skilled personnel necessary for a ministry which will give the Church a substantial Internet presence.

The Church needs this sort of ministry. But it also continues to need the Catholic press that has played such a large role in forming lay people with the values of the Gospel. While commercial newspapers are far less glamorous than the Web, they are far more profitable - thus showing that today they continue to have a much larger place in the life of local communities.

Thirty years ago, the Vatican's Council for Social Communications wrote, "It is hard to see how people can keep in touch with what is happening in the Church without the Catholic press. Neither can people keep a Catholic attitude towards what happens in the world without the help of commentaries on the news written in the light of Christian principles." Those words are at least as valid today as they were in 1971.

The Church's hold on the minds and hearts of Canadians is much weaker today than it was three decades ago. A secular outlook which holds that what is true for you is not necessarily true for me is pervasive. We need constant reminders that not only is there truth, but that truth gives life and freedom. Secularism is the path to despair for individuals and catastrophe for society.

Many Church newspapers have changed enormously over the past 30 years. They will likely change still more, or even fade away, in the coming decades. Today they remain a vital force in the interface between Church and society. And it's unlikely that the Church's inevitable forays into the new media will take place without strong connections to the Church press of today.

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