On 57thWorld Social Communications Day, this Embassy hosted, on Tuesday, May 16, 2023 at Palazzo Borromeo, the presentation of the book “La Chiesa nel digitale” (Tau editrice), edited by Fabio Bolzetta and promoted by the Association of Italian WebCatholics (WECA), which celebrated its 20th anniversary on that occasion.
The event has been an occasion to reflect on the relationship between the Church and the digital world emphasizing the challenges, but also the opportunities, represented by digital communications for the Christian community. A lengthy examination has been made of the potential that the digital world contains so that the Gospel message can be a sign of hope, capable of reaching even the “existential peripheries” toward which the Church must renew its “missionary thrust.”
The session, moderated by Vatican News journalist Cecilia Seppia, was opened by Ambassador Francesco Di Nitto who stressed that: “Our society is now immersed in the digital world; we have to deal with it, since the web can be used both well and badly and this calls us, especially as Christians, to make the most of all its potential for noble purposes”.
Among the interventions, we report those of Prof. Don Mauro Mantovani, Prefect of the Vatican Apostolic Library, Mons. Fabio Fabene, Secretary of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints; Mons. Lucio Adrian Ruiz Secretary of the Dicastery for Communication; Don Gianluca Marchetti, Undersecretary of the Italian Bishops’ Conference and Don Sergio Massironi, Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development.
Citing the theme of this year’s World Communications Day, “Speaking from the heart. According to truth in charity”, Prof. Don Mauro Mantovani lingered on the concept of a new “relational humanism” that emerges from the book. «The book – he explained – poses the fundamental question of how to speak of God, to convey the Gospel with new technologies, while remaining in a cultural, spiritual and anthropological conception».
According to Msgr. Fabio Fabene, in the book emerges the new awareness that the Church must adopt digital tools digital tools for its mission and transmit the Gospel message. He cited the example of Blessed Carlo Acutis, often referred to as an “computer genius”. The apostolic intuition of bringing the message of Christ through social channels has made Carlo a pioneer because he was ahead of his time in using the web.
There is therefore “a need for heart, for love even in the digital world” the warning of Msgr. Lucio Adrian Ruiz, who then mention the “existential peripheries” towards which the Church must have “its missionary impulse” through paths and roads in the digital world, a missionary land useful for promoting the proclamation and the experience of Christ. The path proposed in the book, in his opinion, allows us to to call the digital world not just a tool, but also “an arena in which to bear witness to the beauty of the Christian faith”. Finally, this book, according to Ruiz, “opens up the world of thought and makes us enter into the magisterium of Pope Francis”.
“As Church we have repeatedly investigated this world, but today we are faced with the challenge of taking on the responsibilities that the digital world demands to us” said the Undersecretary of the Italian Episcopal Conference, Don Gianluca Marchetti. According to him, another issue to focus on is the protection of those who inhabit the new technologies, especially minors. “We are thinking of abuse, including sexual abuse, violence, the protection of privacy, but also the ability to wait, respect others and use the correct terms, especially in social media”. There is therefore a boundary between the two opposing excesses of “demonizing new technologies and accepting them tout court” that is represented by a balance of “well education and training’.
In his speech, Don Sergio Massironi questioned how to preserve “a human, sensitive, Christian view in a virtual environment that almost seems immune to empathy”. The probable, but not obvious, answer, according to him, can be found “in the strong component of listening that permeates the whole book: the various chapters, little by little, explain not only how to use certain tools, but also how to approach others”. The book ‘The Church in the Digital World’ is a natural consequence, according to him, of the Church of the Second Vatican Council, as it “makes a great effort to take into account all the subjects of which the Church is composed”.
In conclusion, Fabio Bolzetta, volume editor and President of WECA, send a thought to a category that we think does not exist on the net, but instead is dramatically present: the “invisible” or those who do not have the appropriate skills or even do not yet have the adequate technological tools to access digitally. According to the author, “the Church, which wants to inhabit such a complex world but at the same time so projected towards the future, cannot afford to exclude anyone”.
