Vatican official urges utilization of social media

The Church must utilize social media and implement new means of communication to face emerging challenges thrown up by the digital world, one of Vatican's most senior media advisors expressed at a seminar in Kolkata this week.

Advising the Indian Church to not take the digital world for granted, Monsignor Paul Tighe, Secretary of Pontifical Council for Social Communication, called for productive communication tools and skills to respond to challenges and opportunities offered by the new media.

Tighe was speaking at a seminar for students of theology, organised by the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI).

The Vatican official urged the participants to incorporate social media into ministry for effectively reaching out to people within the Church and outside of it.

New media, he said, can help pastors communicate especially to isolated communities.

Tighe appreciated the efforts of the CBCI for responding to the need to form pastors and church leaders in social communication.

Fifty students of theology from five theological colleges across the country attended the Kolkata seminar which included talks and sessions by media experts.

The students have resolved to form media cells in their colleges and initiate activities such as social networking, promotion of World Communication Day, media education and internet in their respective seminaries.

The Oct. 2-5 seminar was on the theme 'Social Communication in Theological Formation - Paradigms for Pastoral Leadership'. The event was part of the Catholic Church's effort to enable seminarians integrate communication in their formation and ministry.

The CBCI in a statement following its General Assembly in 2004 on the theme "Called to be a Communicating Church" had stated: "Future priests should be adequately formed to proclaim the Word effectively and celebrate the Sacred Mysteries meaningfully."

The statement urged for a proper media course being part of the seminary curriculum. "We urge that communications be integrated into all formation," it said.