Last
July 14, 2012, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines
held the first Catholic Social Media Summit at the Renaissance Hotel,
Marikina City. During this summit, the renowned Archbishop of Manila,
Most. Rev. Luis Antonio G. Tagle (otherwise known as Bishop Chito)
gave his keynote address entitled “Spirituality in the Social
Networking World.” Reading it from the website of the Manila
Archdiocese (www.rcam.org),
it became an inspiration for me to discuss the crucial points given
by Bishop Chito. I would like to discuss about this in line with the
nature of this publication as a means of giving information for the
public to read, reflect, comment and discuss about. |
| The 1st Catholic Social Media Summit held at Makati City was an effort by the group Youth Pinoy together with the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philip- pines Episcopal Commision on the Youth. It celeb- rates the beauty of social media and its effects on young Catholics in our country. |
In
his discussion, he talked about the good use of social networking,
“... (the) sharing of information and knowledge through the means
of social communication could create a world that is more equitable,
a world where access to important places (is) available to all:
mahirap, mababa, may pinag-aralan at
wala...”
When you search the internet, we
look for websites or e-publications that give out the information we
need. How often would I see students when they cite, sometimes even
copy-paste information found in Wikipedia
or in
Britannica and
others. Yet putting it in its good use, the “digital sea” of the
World Wide Web indeed gives opportunities for accessing data that add
to our information reservoir. But of course we must be well aware
that not all of these data can be considered as either “good” or
“reliable.” Being in an open access forum, the internet is prone
to “data poisoning” in which information could either be
distorted or even altered. There are different difficulties on using
the internet because it could serve as a “den of lies” or a
“situation for sin.”
And
because this can be considered as such, it is important for the
Church to be able to bring the good news of Christ to this venue of
communication. Bishop Chito stresses that “...if
we always hear the Church (it) is not only an evangelizing Church but
a Church that needs to be evangelized, in order to evangelize others
the same way with social networking in the media world. The world of
media is the means to evangelize but also a world to be evangelized.”
Pope Benedict XVI calls for this kind of teaching – the “new
evangelization” which endeavors to bring the Gospel to every corner
of the earth using the access brought about by the web. When we look
at social networking sites such as Facebook,
different Catholic organizations and movements create pages in order
for Online
Friends to
Like
(referring
to the action “Like” by pushing that button on your account) or
to view its contents. Come to think of it, Catholic
Hagonoeño has
its own Facebook
page
from which almost 60% of our viewers look for the recent updates on
this e-magazine's activities and posts. Only about 30% look on it
from a Google Search engine and others from either Yahoo or typing
the address directly.
 |
| The 1st Catholic Social Media Summit was held at the Renaissance Hotel in Makati City. Catholics of different sectors of life came to hear the methods for the "new evangelization" supported by our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI at the opening of the "Year of Faith" on October of this year. |
So
Bishop Chito tells us to “rejoice
at the fact that thanks to the world of social media and networking,
information can be shared with a wider audience. Para
bagang knowledge
is not just a privilege of a powerful few. Knowledge is now available
to everyone.” Thus when you make a website like Catholic
Hagonoeño, it
would be about the different traditions of the Church in specific
area, in this case the town of Hagonoy, Bulacan. So with this kind of
information treasury, people could gain easy access to stories of
what do Catholics in Hagonoy do to proclaim their faith. Bishop Chito
asks this question in his talk, “How do you reach people and
communicate to them your cause, your ideals, your convictions, your
principles?” You do so with attempts in order to create a positive
atmosphere in the web that would talk about the town of Hagonoy and
the richness of the Catholic faith as practiced by its people. It
allows me to go back to June 1, 2011 when this website was first
created by me and group of friends that soon became the official
website for information on the Vicariate of St. Anne in Hagonoy,
Bulacan. It gives way for people to “communicate you cause, ideals
and convictions” in order to evangelize the faithful using such
technological media. It makes a good enterprise so that people can
not only know or be informed but be inspired by having such activity
in the internet. It gives people opportunities to discover the
goodness brought about by faith and how we should live it every day.
Yet
it is surprising for some of our youth to consider such
Catholic-oriented or related sites or pages as “boring” or “too
conservative.” However it is something that connects you with your
faith. As Bishop Tagle mentioned at the climax of his talk:
“O,
huwag kayong mahihiya.
Part of the spirituality is to proclaim. You are not forcing anyone
but you proclaim what you believe in. You proclaim the joy of being a
follower of Christ. You proclaim and you hope to be viral, to
contaminate others with the joy that comes to someone who has
discovered Jesus. Contaminate others. Be a contagious disease.
Contaminate them with the joy of becoming a promoter of the kingdom
of truth, justice and peace. Go viral hindi
yung kung anu ano ang bina-viral
na
wala namang naitutulong para maging mabuting tao tayo.
This is a fundamental cause of Christians, the Kingdom of God, the
Gospel. Atin
po yang gamitin.”
Seeing
Catholic websites is not a thing to ignore or to be shy about. It is
allowing yourself to be a part of the Church in everything you do.
You do not become a Catholic when you attend Sunday mass and become a
non-Catholic when your browsing the net.
Being
Catholic is part of who you are as person from the fact that you were
baptized, confirmed and received holy communion from the Church.
Thus, it would be truly an inspiration and a thanksgiving for
Catholics, especially our youth to come up with ideas to express
their faith more and to make people more knowledgable about it.
 |
| This icon of the saint-to-be Pedro Calungsod of Cebu is one of the many advertisements created by the Catholic youth of this generation in order to popularize devotion to the saint. You may see this on the Facebook page inscribed below the icon. |
Bishop
Chito ends his talk mentioning the saint-to-be Pedro Calungsod of
Cebu as “a
proclaimer of the Word, a catechist, and he proclaim the word across
boundaries.” Like him, we are all called by the Lord God to become
“proclaimers of the Word that is Christ.” By means of this we
become co-workers in the “new evangelization” that the Church
encourages for the good of the faithful. To Catholic
Hagonoeño
and
other Catholic Church sites – may these remain as agents of
evangelization and proclamation of the faith we profess. May
we always bear and appreciate our Catholic heritage and love the Lord
by our faith.
(For
Archbishop Luis Antonio “Chito” Tagle's talk, please click to:
http://www.rcam.org/news/766-spirituality-in-the-social-networking-world)
Photo Courtesy: Youth Pinoy.com
No comments:
Post a Comment