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Responding through Catholic webauthorship
Evangelizing the Net through Catholic webauthorship
The impact of the internet and the other
social communications media
The social communications media has been a powerful agent in the transformation
of our global communications culture. And at the forefront of this media
movement is the Internet - the information highway of the world.
Anyone who uses the Internet is well aware of all that passes through the
monitor screens of the many personal computers or notebooks. It is no
secret nor is it kept under wraps, that pornographic material abound in the
webpages of many websites who use sexually graphic material for trade and
commerce. This way of making a living is most saddening and disappointing
because it reflects that our world culture is morally degenerating from the
highly esteemed values it once upheld at the height of Christendom's golden
eras. What would protect our youth from being swayed into such a morally
degenerative trend of thinking and feeling?
This is why the Church also enters into this Internet arena of crass
commercialism and spurs its members to proclaim the gospel values in order
to counteract and reverse the wrong influences and ethical damages being
made upon the very impressionable minds of our youth. With this new forum
and areopagus, the Church calls all to inculturate the Catholic faith
through the various modes of text, graphics, flash images, colors and
various designs and styles - and make clear to the Internet user that faith
in the message of Christ's gospel is still the one that can save the world
from the direction it heading - a direction towards a corruption of morals
and a degradation of values; and a direction towards a spiral spirit of
ethnic and religious hatred and violence proliferating in many hate sites.
It is really an opportune time for the Church to enter into such a mission
because she can harness the skills and talents of her members, especially
the lay faithful, who have more opportunities in terms of time and resources
to devote themselves to this mission. The clergy and religious can also
enter into this type of mission but their particular sacramental duties or
community's charism call them more to their primary vocation's obligations
and tasks. A priest's top priority is the celebration of the Eucharist and
a religious' top priority is his or her congregations charism.
What is most serendipitous about the involvement of the lay faithful in this
mission is that those who can undertake such a mission are the truly learned
and educated - both theologically/spiritually and technologically. It takes
a certain degree of intelligence to respond to this mission. Adequate
preparation and skill thus must be learned and mastered. One's mind must
move to be a "cut above the rest". It would even give greater impact if
the webauthor was theologically-trained and has undergone a substantial
period of spiritual formation. If we were to compare this to something
akin to a military training - we can say that the Catholic webauthor is
like a member of an elite force - a kind of high-ranking special weapons
and tactics force meant to tackle high security issues.
Indeed, it takes not only high intelligence but a "steel" spirituality to
interact with all kinds of people on the Internet. Without the good
discipline of prayer and contemplation that goes with this mission -
one may be misled and tempted to take shortcuts or swerve towards mentalities
and spiritualities that are in conflict with our own. It is therefore
imperative that the Catholic webauthor must be involved in some kind of
parochial ministry or educational profession relating to the faith or
belong to a Catholic lay organization involved in charitable activities
or works in the social justice sector. This involvement away from the world
of cyberspace will be his main foundation for being on the Internet.
Otherwise, his Catholicism would be very quasi and not authentic. Authentic
spiritual experiences are primary experiences - ones that are obtained from
participation and involvement in the Eucharistic liturgy or in the various
traditional apostolates of the parochial Church. Everything in the Internet
is only secondary experiences - even though they are interactive. Though
it may mean more than watching a movie, the television, or listening to a
radio because because you can interact with another person through this
medium, its communication is still electronically-mediated and can never
take the place of actual mission methods that were used by Jesus: eye contact,
speech, gestures, body language and healing touches.
Some experience through the Internet may be "inspiring" to a degree that it
can be taken as "spiritual", uplifting and indeed edifying to one's state
of soul. This is why the Internet is such an advantage when it comes to
reaching as many people as it can - touching lives by just one webpage.
Though it may seem that we downplay the importance of the Internet because
of its lacking 'sacramental' value compared to the Eucharistic celebration and
the celebration of the other sacraments, it is nevertheless significant
because of its highly dense amount of catechetical and documentary material
that has been organized to fill a small amount of space in one's home or
office or school. What would have been organized to fill a whole building
of catechetical, spiritual and theological books can now be compressed to
a single personal computer: monitor, CPU, mouse and keyboard (and webcam
and speakers for the more "techno-savvy"). Aside from this, the fast speed
of response that electronic mail can be able to do can give moral support,
strength and encouragement to a fellow-Catholic or fellow-Christian on the
other side of the globe. No other medium of communication has revolutionized
our way of thinking, feeling and acting as does the Internet. Everything is
obtained with a mere "click" of the mouse. To prevent the mentality of "I
can get what I need fast" - which is akin to the "vending machine", "fast
food", and "instant-this-instant-that" mentality, it is the task of the
Catholic webauthor to create webpages where Catholics and other peoples of
other faiths can take time to read slowly and meditatively material that
will help them reflect and gain insights for quality living in the
life-situations they find themselves.
This is the mission of the Catholic webauthor: to present Christ to the world
through the world of cyberspace. But the presentation of Christ to the world
must not remain only at the literal level - like showing pictures of Jesus or
presenting pages of the gospel. It can reach our target audience at a much
deeper level - the level where their knowledge of Christ enters deep into
their minds and their hearts through depth of insight and feeling and the
light of classic wisdom. Though the Internet is something new, Christ is
the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. The Christ that we get to know
through the Internet is a reflection of the Christ we experience in all
our sacramental and interpersonal encounters of friendship, love, peace,
unity and harmony in the physical world.
Dennis-Emmanuel Cabrera
September 8, 2004
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