At each and every one at all I
would like to apologize on my behalf and the others, that all
offenses for conscious and unconscious that we made to each other.
Members of the new office, the chairmen of committees and
coordinators of districts I wish peace, health and grace abundant to
meet the challenge ahead. May the Holy Spirit always grants us with
gifts for the service of our sisters and brothers of the Church and
we contribute to the development of everyone and our own
development.
Again thank you to everyone from the bottom of my heart.
Fraternally!
THE PRESIDENT
Prosper Youm
_________________
pope encourages to evangelize
through the internet
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
In anticipation of the forthcoming World Communications Day, I would
like to address to you some reflections on the theme chosen for this
year - New Technologies, New Relationships: Promoting a culture of
Respect, Dialogue and Friendship. The new digital technologies are,
indeed, bringing about fundamental shifts in patterns of
communication andIn anticipation of the forthcoming World
Communications Day, I would like to address to you some reflections
on the theme chosen for this year - New Technologies, New
Relationships: Promoting a culture of Respect, Dialogue and
Friendship. The new digital technologies are, indeed, bringing about
fundamental shifts in patterns of communication and human
relationships. These changes are particularly evident among those
young people who have grown up with the new technologies and are at
home in a digital world that often seems quite foreign to those of
us who, as adults, have had to learn to understand and appreciate
the opportunities it has to offer for communications.
In this year’s message, I am conscious of those who constitute the
so-called digital generation and I would like to share with them, in
particular, some ideas concerning the extraordinary potential of the
new technologies, if they are used to promote human understanding
and solidarity. These technologies are truly a gift to humanity and
we must endeavor to ensure that the benefits they offer are put at
the service of all human individuals and communities, especially
those who are most disadvantaged and vulnerable.
The accessibility of mobile telephones and computers, combined with
the global reach and penetration of the internet, has opened up a
range of means of communication that permit the almost instantaneous
communication of words and images across enormous distances and to
some of the most isolated corners of the world; something that would
have been unthinkable for previous generations.
Young people, in particular, have grasped the enormous capacity of
the new media to foster connectedness, communication and
understanding between individuals and communities, and they are
turning to them as means of communicating with existing friends, of
meeting new friends, of forming communities and networks, of seeking
information and news, and of sharing their ideas and opinions.
Many benefits flow from this new culture of communication: families
are able to maintain contact across great distances; students and
researchers have more immediate and easier access to documents,
sources and scientific discoveries, hence they can work
collaboratively from different locations; moreover, the interactive
nature of many of the new media facilitates more dynamic forms of
learning and communication, thereby contributing to social progress.
While the speed with which the new technologies have evolved in
terms of their efficiency and reliability is rightly a source of
wonder, their popularity with users should not surprise us, as they
respond to a fundamental desire of people to communicate and to
relate to each other.
This desire for communication and friendship is rooted in our very
nature as human beings and cannot be adequately understood as a
response to technical innovations.
In the light of the biblical message, it should be seen
primarily as a reflection of our participation in the communicative
and unifying Love of God, who desires to make of all humanity one
family. When we find ourselves drawn towards other people, when we
want to know more about them and make ourselves known to them, we
are responding to God’s call - a call that is imprinted in our
nature as beings created in the image and likeness of God, the God
of communication and communion.
The desire for connectedness and the instinct for communication that
are so obvious in contemporary culture are best understood as modern
manifestations of the basic and enduring propensity of humans to
reach beyond themselves and to seek communion with others. In
reality, when we open ourselves to others, we are fulfilling our
deepest need and becoming more fully human. Loving is, in fact, what
we are designed for by our ...
Creator. Naturally, I am not talking about fleeting, shallow
relationships, I am talking about the real love that is at the very
heart of Jesus’ moral teaching: "You must love the Lord your God
with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and
with all your strength" and "You must love your neighbor as
yourself" (cf. Mk 12:30-31).
In this light, reflecting on the significance of the new
technologies, it is important to focus not just on their undoubted
capacity to foster contact between people, but on the quality of the
content that is put into circulation using these means. I would
encourage all people of good will who are active in the emerging
environment of digital communication to commit themselves to
promoting a culture of respect, dialogue and friendship.
Those who are active in the production and dissemination of new
media content, therefore, should strive to respect the dignity and
worth of the human person. If the new technologies are to serve the
good of individuals and of society, all users will avoid the sharing
of words and images that are degrading of human beings, that promote
hatred and intolerance, that debase the goodness and intimacy of
human sexuality or that exploit the weak and vulnerable.
The new technologies have also opened the way for dialogue between
people from different countries, cultures and religions. The new
digital arena, the so-called cyberspace, allows them to encounter
and to know each other’s traditions and values. Such encounters, if
they are to be fruitful, require honest and appropriate forms of
expression together with attentive and respectful listening.
The dialogue must be rooted in a genuine and mutual searching for
truth if it is to realize its potential to promote growth in
understanding and tolerance. Life is not just a succession of events
or experiences: it is a search for the true, the good and the
beautiful. It is to this end that we make our choices; it is for
this that we exercise our freedom; it is in this - in truth, in
goodness, and in beauty - that we find happiness and joy. We must
not allow ourselves to be deceived by those who see us merely as
consumers in a market of undifferentiated possibilities, where
choice itself becomes the good, novelty usurps beauty, and
subjective experience displaces truth.
The concept of friendship has enjoyed a renewed prominence in the
vocabulary of the new digital social networks that have emerged in
the last few years. The concept is one of the noblest achievements
of human culture. It is in and through our friendships that we grow
and develop as humans. For this reason, true friendship has always
been seen as one of the greatest goods any human person can
experience. We should be careful, therefore, never to trivialize the
concept or the experience of friendship. It would be sad if our
desire to sustain and develop on-line friendships were to be at the
cost of our availability to engage with our families, our neighbours
and those we meet in the daily reality of our places of work,
education and recreation. If the desire for virtual connectedness
becomes obsessive, it may in fact function to isolate individuals
from real social interaction while also disrupting the patterns of
rest, silence and reflection that are necessary for healthy human
development.
Friendship is a great human good, but it would be emptied of its
ultimate value if it were to be understood as an end in itself.
Friends should support and encourage each other in developing their
gifts and talents and in putting them at the service of the human
community. In this context, it is gratifying to note the emergence
of new digital networks that seek to promote human solidarity, peace
and justice, human rights and respect for human life and the good of
creation. These networks can facilitate forms of co-operation
between people from different geographical and cultural contexts
that enable them to deepen their common humanity and their sense of
shared responsibility for the good of all.
We must, therefore, strive to ensure that the digital world, where
such networks can be established, is a world that is truly open to
all. It would be a tragedy for the future of humanity if the new
instruments of communication, which permit the sharing of knowledge
and information in a more rapid and effective manner, were not made
accessible to those who are already economically and socially
marginalized, or if it should contribute only to increasing the gap
separating the poor from the new networks that are developing at the
service of human socialization and information.
I would like to conclude this message by addressing myself, in
particular, to young Catholic believers: to encourage them to bring
the witness of their faith to the digital world. Dear Brothers and
Sisters, I ask you to introduce into the culture of this new
environment of communications and information technology the values
on which you have built your lives. In the early life of the Church,
the great Apostles and their disciples brought the Good News of
Jesus to the Greek and Roman world.
Just as, at that time, a fruitful evangelization required that
careful attention be given to understanding the culture and customs
of those pagan peoples so that the truth of the gospel would touch
their hearts and minds, so also today, the proclamation of Christ in
the world of new technologies requires a profound knowledge of this
world if the technologies are to serve our mission adequately. It
falls, in particular, to young people, who have an almost
spontaneous affinity for the new means of communication, to take on
the responsibility for the evangelization of this "digital
continent".
Be sure to announce the Gospel to your contemporaries with
enthusiasm. You know their fears and their hopes, their aspirations
and their disappointments: the greatest gift you can give to them is
to share with them the "Good News" of a God who became man, who
suffered, died and rose again to save all people. Human hearts are
yearning for a world where love endures, where gifts are shared,
where unity is built, where freedom finds meaning in truth, and
where identity is found in respectful communion. Our faith can
respond to these expectations: may you become its heralds! The Pope
accompanies you with his prayers and his blessings.