Communications Is Sharing

Pope Francis focused on story telling in his 2020 World Communications Day Message. “A good story can transcend the confines of space and time. Centuries later, it remains timely, for it nourishes life.”

Telling a good story builds on one of the pope’s favoured, frequent words: encounter. Dr. Paolo Ruffini reflected on the pope's in a video.

As #PopeFrancis recalls #WorldCommunicationsDay, the Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication reflects on the Church’s role in building a new communications model founded on encounter.https://t.co/HiIVrGqKYi

— Vatican News (@VaticanNews) May 24, 2020

Pacing Oneself

Virtual meetings require more of us than meeting face to face. The cues that one usually reads from another are not available online. The National Geographic explained “Zoom fatigue” in a recent post. Stay connected and aim to stay in good health.

A surge of video calls during the pandemic highlights something that’s always been true: virtual interactions can be extremely hard on the brain https://t.co/Cj8IlfuZZV

— National Geographic (@NatGeo) April 25, 2020

Not Necessarily Social

Social media may not benefit our human need to be in contact with others. A U.S. psychological study suggests that this brand of media may cause increased feeling of isolation and may even “cause feelings of envy.”  

“We do not yet know which came first—the social media use or the perceived social isolation,” said a co-author of the study.

Today’s BBC post includes a resource on keeping social media in perspective.

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Wiki-image  Lonely boy by Arief Rahman Saan (Ezagren) CC BY-SA 3.0

Communication, Mercy, Healing

An initiative in Australia aims to put people first. The Australian Catholic Bishops “will provide an opportunity for ordinary Catholics and child abuse survivors to speak directly to Church leadership.” It is a concrete response to the invitation Pope Francis extended to let “the power of mercy to heal wounded relationships” (World Communications Day Message). Stories told and believed begin healing and empower people.  

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Wiki-image of Kings Canyon by Ueli Fahrni CC BY-SA 3.0

4%

A Forbes interview revealed that in mid-July 2010 a group stopped counting websites used for porn. Its estimate: four percent. The fraction is small, but the number of webistes sites accessed was not. What to do? How to choose for one-self and for others? Last week Jesuit Michael Rozier asked that question. Along the way he linked to an opinion column about “soft paternalism” to increase readers’ understanding.

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Wiki-image by Uwais of Teachings of Ghanhiji CC BY-SA 3.0.

“Not Just To Keep Up”

About a month before resigning, Pope Emeritus Benedict penned the 2013 World Communications Day Message. He reflected on the “development of digital social networks.”

The challenge facing social networks is how to be truly inclusive. . . Believers are increasingly aware that, unless the Good News is made known also in the digital world, it may be absent in the experience of many people for whom this existential space is important.

Many seldom think about the print world because they were born into it. Yet when the print world was new, many had to be encouraged to use it. (St. Ignatius encouraged Jesuits to use it.) The Internet Generation, though, grows up in the digital world. “Effective communication, as in the parables of Jesus, must involve the imagination and the affectivity of those we wish to invite to an encounter with the mystery of God’s love.” Social networks are also evangelizing tools.

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Wiki-image of a free Twitter badge public domain.

Visit Faith Sites

Jesuit Sam Sawyer, cofounder of The Jesuit Post, remarked on some faith sites worth visiting. In his run-up to them he mentioned this CARA data: “Slightly more than half of the Catholics surveyed (ages 18 and up) said they were unaware of a significant Catholic presence online; only one in 20 reported reading or following a Catholic blog.” Learn his picks.

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Wiki-image by Cortega9 of blog comments CC BY-SA 3.0.

Why It Never Sleeps

So explains the first map in this collection. The upper right corner shows the elapsed time on a day in NYC and part of its transit system use. How long does it take to map city streets so other can get around more easily? Years! Check map 18 to cover six years in just over a minute.

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Wiki-image of 12^th -Century world map {PD-old-100}.

Anatomy of Scam

No inbox is immune. Some e-mailbox owners fall for e-scams. A scammer tried to lure Lance Utanoff with the Spanish Prisoner. Mr. Utanoff contacted a security director, who “offered to pick apart my email, which he called ‘bait,’ to see if we could learn any truths about the heart of a digital flimflam.” Wonder about the names used? Ever notice the origins of the senders? Get these and more answers.

Catholic Book Awards

From the ACP: “Women took half of the six first place awards and seven of the second and third place awards at the 2012 Excellence in Publi-shing Awards given out today by the Association of Catholic Publishers at the 2012 Religious Booksellers Trade Exhibit (RBTE) in St. Charles, IL. The goal of these awards is to recognize the best in Catholic publishing.” Read the list.

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Wiki-image of open book is in the public domain.

Over 100 and Youngest

The youngest editor in chief of the over-100-year-old America Magazine has been named: Jesuit Matt Malone.

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Wiki-image by Pere López of Jesuit emblem used by CC BY-SA 3.0.

Description → Analysis

In an engaging way NYT columnist David Brooks described U.S. society and where it could be in his 2012 The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement. He embeds facts within the story of a couple as children and as adults. His books points to possibilities, suggested by his subtitle.

Published just days later, Richard Sennet offered an analysis relating to some of what Mr. Brooks described. Of Mr. Sennet’s Together: The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Cooperation. In ThinkingFaith John Battle wrote

that it sounds as if it should provide a handy manual of how to proceed. This book, however, is far more challenging than that; Sennett provides a deep critique of the way our societies are developing in the twenty-first century. Sennett’s starting point is his assertion that modern society is actively de-skilling people in practising cooperation: ‘...We are losing the skills of cooperation needed to make a complex society work.’ ...‘Cooperation oils the machinery of getting things done and sharing with others can make up for what we may individually lack. Cooperation is embedded in our genes but cannot remain stuck in routine behaviour, it needs to be deepened and developed.’

One reader suggested on Amazon.com that Mr. Sennet’s volume needs a workbook. Many “far more challenging” analyses of this sort often do. Perhaps Mr. Sennet or someone else will provide one. Read Mr. Battle’s review.

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Wiki-image by Anna Bauer of many-to-many wiki used by CC BY-SA 3.0.

Defending the Whole

Two tweets yesterday focused differently yet spoke about the whole church. Jesuit Jason Brauninger took on the often-heard self-identifier, “I’m spiritual but not religious.” At The Jesuit Post, he addressed “the task of reforging the bond between spirituality and religion.”  

In Commonweal, E. J. Dionne Jr. refused the command, “It’s Time to Quit the Catholic Church.” Addressing all members of the church in his “Quit the Church? Thanks but no thanks,” he noted: “Secularists, who never liked Catholicism in the first place, want us to leave the church, but so do Catholic conservatives who want the church all to themselves.”

With particular emphases each author reminds that the church is a large ship and needs an entire crew to navigate well and faithfully.

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Photo of Jason Brauninger, S.J., is located here at The Jesuit Post.

Communications

On the eve of the close of Week of Christian Unity, modern popes release the annual World Communications Day Message. January 24 celebrates St. Francis de Sales, the patron saint of writers. The pope again lauds social media.

Attention should be paid to the various types of websites, applications and social networks which can help people today to find time for reflection and authentic questioning, as well as making space for silence and occasions for prayer, meditation or sharing of the word of God. 

The text of the message and an audio commentary are available.

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Wiki-image of mike is used according to CC0 1.0.

Inside Look

Bishops from Roman Catholic Provinces, groupings of dioceses, have been meeting in Rome with Pope Benedict. The pope is meeting with several bishops at once to resume

the scheduled regularity of these meetings (every five years).

Some bishops were skeptical about the depth this meeting style could achieve. As Archbishop Timothy Dolan— Archbishop of New York as well as President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops— reported last week, the bishops were “pleasantly surprised.”

View the CNS video featuring Archbishop Dolan’s remarks.

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Wiki-image of aerial view of the Vatican is in the public domain.

Numbers, Catholics, Social Media

The Archdiocese of St. Paul & Minneapolis will hold a Communications Day on 13 October 2011. In advance of it, the archdiocese published some numbers about Catholics' uses of social communications media. Some of the numbers may surprise.

Review them here.

[Source: Tweet from Catholic Spirit, the archdiocesan paper]