Pope Urges On Religious Social Media

Religion is not usually the first thing that people use Twitter, YouTube and blogs to pursue. In fact, it’s probably at the opposite end of the dirty minds of the average social media user. But if Pope Benedict XVI gets his way, the social landscape on the Internet will be cleaned up with some of the good word of the Lord.

Over the weekend, the Pope encouraged priests to make use of all tools available when spreading the message–tools that could include blogging, video and social networking.

In part of the speech prepared for the 44th World Communications Day in May, the Pope expressed the comprehensive approach to communications he sees as paramount to spreading the Church’s message: “Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites) which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis.”

The Pope views Internet communication and multimedia tools as an effective means of introducing more people to the Church and keeping the message alive and well in the modern world.

Following church on Twitter sure sounds like a great alternative to dragging out of bed at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday morning (though I don’t think that’s exactly what the Pope had in mind). Check out the full text of the interesting speech here. [via Ars Technica] [Photo: roblisameehan]