Mission field Internet

by Editor · September 3, 2014

Since about the turn of the century, the definition of friendship has assumed new forms which benefit society, and can aid the Church in its mission to evangelise. The way people relate to one another has changed since the advent of the Internet, especially by social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, but also by Internet forums in which people of shared interests come together, sometimes from all parts of the world, to share their knowledge and opinions in the field of their passion.

“…Churchs evangelising work on digital platforms can be effective only if we are authentic witness to our faith.”

Likewise, cellphone technology has made it easier and cheaper to communicate, with instant messaging services such as WhatsApp supplanting, at least in informal communication, the by now old-fashioned e-mail.

Where once a friendship depended on physical proximity and access, carefully written letters posted by mail, or a telephone call, now many people routinely maintain friendships by the methods made available by the Internet or cellphones.

It is not unusual for people to consider as friends individuals whom they have never met, and perhaps never will. Where in the days of so-called snail-mail one might have had a small number of penpals whom one might never meet, today such friends are accumulated by the click of a mouse.

Social networking sites such as Twitter can even create a personal connection (albeit usually unilateral) with celebrities and world leaders. While only the most hopeful of Pope Francis’ more than four million followers on Twitter would mistake that relationship for personal friendship, the service has made it possible for the pope to reach out to people on a more intimate level than news reports would allow.

With all the advantages of modern communication, however, one needs to differentiate between friends made on social networking sites and the traditional nature of friendship, which depends on a certain measure of personal contact, companionship and implicit trust.

Friendships created on the Internet can be illusory though many are not precisely because one can control the information shared on the Internet and thereby exercise the choice of how to reveal one’s self to others. In what they post on sites such as Facebook, people can carefully manage the image they project in ways that are more difficult to do in direct interpersonal relations.

Nonetheless, Internet relationships have the potential to do much good as sources for information and inspiration. They can contribute to personal growth by exposure to a variety of interests and opinions. In this way, social networks can also be fertile mission fields.

Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, acknowledged and encouraged that notion in a speech he delivered in New York in May.

The archbishop encouraged Church leaders and media organisations to reflect on the rapid changes in communication and to use these to engage with people, in the Church and outside of it.

He rightly noted that the most significant change is not technological but cultural.

Archbishop Celli explained: The real challenge is to appreciate how much is changing in the ways people, especially young people, are gathering information, are being educated, are expressing themselves, and are forming relationships and communities.

The Church’s message must be presented with this in mind, speaking the language of those at whom it is aimed.

Archbishop Celli pointed out that the Church’s evangelising work on digital platforms can be effective only if we are authentic witness to our faith.

The best way to do so is for those who seek to evangelise to build relationships and be open to form friendships in the new sense of the word and be open to the insights and experiences of others.

It may even be a way of promoting vocations by increasing the visibility of the clergy and presenting the priesthood as an affirming life choice at a time when many Catholics see their priests only at Mass.

Social networking sites turn on its head the redundant assumption that the people should come to the Church, not the Church to the people.

Like the marketplaces of ancient Corinth, Antioch and Rome, the Internet is a neutral place where people can meet and evangelise one another. In imitation of St Paul, we must use these forums.