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''Internet: a new forum for proclaiming the Gospel''

The first document is from Pope John Paul II. It was not he who started the annual World Communication Day messages. That came straight out of Vatican Council II and was the only such 'world day' anniversary mandated by that Council. But there is little doubt that thus far, at least, John Paul II has given us the bulk of the 40 or so messages that have resulted. I have said it before and will repeat it here that I believe a thorough study of these messages, which become part of the 'magisterium' of teaching, added to the body of Catholic Social Teaching, will offer us rich potential for understanding evangelisation and education in today's digital culture.

Anyway, the message in question is from 2002, the 36th World Communications Day: Internet, a new forum for proclaiming the Gospel. Some readers may never have had the opportunity to read it, others may have at the time but have now forgotten about it.

-> But the history of evangelization is not just a matter of geographic expansion, for the Church has also had to cross many cultural thresholds, each of which called for fresh energy and imagination in proclaiming the one Gospel of Jesus Christ. The age of the great discoveries, the Renaissance and the invention of printing, the Industrial Revolution and the birth of the modern world: these too were threshold moments which demanded new forms of evangelization. Now, with the communications and information revolution in full swing, the Church stands unmistakably at another decisive gateway. It is fitting therefore that on this World Communications Day 2002 we should reflect on the subject: “Internet: A New Forum for Proclaiming the Gospel".

The key point here is the tone of the language: 'cross...thresholds', 'birth of the modern world', 'decisive gateway', 'new forum'. The same Pope had already said that 'the first Areopagus of the modern age is the world of communications' (in ''Redemptoris Missio'' n.37), and his 36th WCD message builds on that by using the more common term 'forum'. But we need to take his overall comment seriously, and I will pick up on that further on: that this is an entirely new ballgame. So what does that mean?

-> Like the new frontiers of other times, this one too [cyberspace] is full of the interplay of danger and promise, and not without the sense of adventure which marked other great periods of change. For the Church the new world of cyberspace is a summons to the great adventure of using its potential to proclaim the Gospel message. This challenge is at the heart of what it means at the beginning of the millennium to follow the Lord's command to "put out into the deep”: Duc in altum! (Lk 5:4).

He then moves on to describing cyberspace as 'a summons to the great adventure'. We've had astronauts and cybernauts, so we may possibly need a new portmanteau term for evangelisers in this new context. The Pope does not actually suggest one – any ideas?

What follows is a neat summary of two kinds of evangelisation: 'first' evangelisation, presenting the Gospel to those for whom it may be entirely new:

-> Above all, by providing information and stirring interest it makes possible an initial encounter with the Christian message, especially among the young who increasingly turn to the world of cyberspace as a window on the world. It is important, therefore, that the Christian community think of very practical ways of helping those who first make contact through the Internet to move from the virtual world of cyberspace to the real world of Christian community.

And since evangelisation is the normal process of transmitting the Gospel, as explained in the opening citation for this chapter,

-> the Internet can also provide the kind of follow-up which evangelization requires. Especially in an unsupportive culture, Christian living calls for continuing instruction and catechesis, and this is perhaps the area in which the Internet can provide excellent help.

But there is also the third kind of evangelisation which the message is all about, and implicit in the quote immediately above – 'new' evangelisation, for those who have lost contact with the Gospel for all kinds of reasons including an 'unsupportive culture', and may be reconnected to it.

We are then given a number of problem areas which affect the evangelising capacity of the Internet:

-> The essence of the Internet in fact is that it provides an almost unending flood of information, much of which passes in a moment. In a culture which feeds on the ephemeral there can easily be a risk of believing that it is facts that matter, rather than values.

Apart from the absence of values, crucial to evangelisation, there is the problem of the lack of reflection that the Internet (and not only the Internet, but the digital culture in general) may induce:

-> the Internet radically redefines a person's psychological relationship to time and space. Attention is rivetted on what is tangible, useful, instantly available; the stimulus for deeper thought and reflection may be lacking. Yet human beings have a vital need for time and inner quiet to ponder and examine life and its mysteries, and to grow gradually into a mature dominion of themselves and of the world around them.

And the Pope's final thought on Internet as a new forum for evangelisation is thought-provoking:

-> For it is only when his face is seen and his voice heard that the world will know the glad tidings of our redemption. This is the purpose of evangelization. And this is what will make the Internet a genuinely human space, for if there is no room for Christ, there is no room for man. Pope John Paul II, in that brief message, has actually carried out a wonderful piece of evangelisation himself, via the very medium he is speaking of!

Digital natives Digital Immigrants

(:nl:)