The Internet, the new Radio

For some years now the "Web" has posed such a challenge to the Church and her mission. In the past the Chrch was viewed by the majority as the only authority to questiones like "who is God?", "what is love?", or "who is Jesus?" Indeed she still is and will be! But lately these questions have been addressed to the web pages like "google, yahoo, ask etc. In 2007 via google search engine millions of surfers were said to ask the above question, of which the question " who is God?" came first. The fact is the internet now receives many visitors, about 1.7 bilion people around the world visit the web according to a research done recently by CNR Institute of Informatics and Telematics. Pages returned by Googles seem to have doubled ever since. This makes the web replace the native source of information used for many years - the Radio.  http://www.registro.it/.

But in this sea of information, says Domenico Lorenzo, director of the CNR Institute of Informatics and Telematics, even the voice of the Catholic Church has established itself with authority as a way to meet the challenge of the time, but more as a new forum of evangelisation - the web has become for the Church the new "aeropagus". The Church faces this challenge attentive to the rigor of the contents which may be religious, philosophical, rambling or blasphemous and to the dynamics of the means of communication. The Church has learnt how to look to the internet as the ideal way - global and interactive - of spreading the Good News to every corner of the World.  http://www.registro.it/.

For many years the evangelical mission has been entrusted to the radio, which has managed to spread the voice of the Church in every corner of the World. Vatican Radio came into operation by 1931, then followed institutional and diocesan radios all over the World. The radio has been an instrument of free communication, capable of bringing the Word of God even to the more remote areas of the globe environmentally as well as politically. Surprisingly, the same function have taken over by internet with no barriers. The internet effortless overcomes the boundaries of space, and time and adds the gift of interactivity, and enables the church not only to talk but to listen and interpret the needs of the faithful. The Pope, Benedict the XVI in the Apostolic Exhortation "Africae Munus" urges the Church in Africa to be familiar with the new World of information technology and communication. The faithful should look to the media as an area to evangelise as well as a powerful tool for evangelisation. Africae Munus, 142-146