Pope says priests must move in cyberspace

Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI in a message issued Saturday, urged priests to use modern digital technology including the internet, to interact with the faithful and to seek out new converts. Jesus' "word can traverse the many crossroads created by the intersection of all the different 'highways' that form 'cyberspace,' and show that God has his rightful place in every age, including our own," the pontiff said.

"Thanks to the new communications media, the Lord can walk the streets of our cities and, stopping before the threshold of our homes and our hearts, say once more: 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me,'" Benedict said, citing the New Testament book of Revelation.

Benedict's message was prepared for the Catholic Church's World Day of Social Communications which falls on Sunday, the feast-day of the patron saint of journalists, St Francis de Sales.

Since the 82-year-old Benedict's election in 2005, the Vatican has increased its presence on the internet, creating an internet site dedicated to the pontiff, www.pope2you.net, on the web video-sharing channel Youtube and on the social networking site Facebook.

More than 2 million hits were registered by visitors to www.pope2you.net, during the Christmas season, according to the president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Monsignor Claudio Maria Celli.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/305370,pope-says-priests-must-move-in-cyberspace.html.