Says Pope Francis: Toughen up, people!

By Sister Mary Ann Walsh

Toughen up, people! That seems to be one theme from Pope Francis in his annual Message for World Communications Day, which will be observed June 1, 2014.

Pope Francis repeats his call that Christians must be out on the streets, even if they get dirty. He wants his leaders to be so in touch with their people that, as he’s said before, they “smell like the sheep.”

Says the pope: “If a choice has to be made between a bruised Church which goes out to the streets and a Church suffering from self-absorption, I certainly prefer the first.” This time the message is in reference to the world of digital communications.

The pope seems to chide those who use the Internet to make statements but refuse to accept comments. “Keeping the doors of our churches open also means keeping them open in the digital environment so that people, whatever their situation in life, can enter, and so that the church is the home to all.”

The Internet world is not for the faint of heart. Church representatives can take a lot of heat when they engage it. Anonymous people use it to vent on whatever piece of church teaching bothers them, for example. They use language and images not learned at mother’s knee. Anonymity lets someone angry about divorce take potshots at people who address religious beliefs. Irate Internet groups can gang up to fill someone’s mailbox with the repeated message: change church teaching. Such actions are off-putting and unfair. However, they also are part of life on the gritty streets, where Pope Francis calls his followers to be.

This seems to mean that before we push the delete button when we see a message from someone we disagree with, such as another political party or someone on the other spectrum of religious thought, we have to ponder what they say. It’s not capitulation, for says Francis: “Engaging in dialogue does not mean renouncing our own ideas and traditions, but the clam that they alone are valid or absolute.”

For Pope Francis, assaults on the Internet are opportunities to open dialogue, to spread the Gospel. The Internet can be a rugged neighborhood, but it’s where the Gospel needs to be preached and people seen as neighbors not enemies. It’s no place for digital wimps, but it is one more place where Pope Francis calls the church to be.

Power up for Lent

               Post on Facebook. Send a tweet. Less than a month before Ash Wednesday Pope Benedict XVI has called on Catholics to get into social media. He blesses the world of Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest and Facebook. He calls social media the new “agora,” the “open public square in which people share ideas, information and opinions, and in which new relationships and forms of community can come into being.”

            The pope lauded the latest communications breakthroughs in his 47^th World Communications Day message, “Social Networks: portals of truth and faith; new spaces for evangelization.” World Communications Day is marked in the U.S. on May 12.

            For Pope Benedict social media is opportunity. A Lenten exercise for us may be to help social media be worthy of the papal endorsement. We need to sanctify the net. Here are some steps:

            Go positive to counter the negative. The Web is filled with snide and snarky comments, so offer a counter balance. When you see meanness, an untruth or bias, gently correct for the record.

            Pray for the nay-sayers and character assassins who hide behind anonymity. Writers marked by mean speech reflect inner pain.  

            Resist knee-jerk responses. Ask how someone on the receiving end will feel before flinging a verbal slice and dice.

            Lent is a time for alms-giving so seek out worthy charities to which to donate. Catholic Relief Services’ Operation Rise Bowl is one. Catholic Charities agencies are always in need.

Share where you’ve seen God during the day and use pics. God’s there in the kids who make us laugh, the beauty of a flower, the images of love that touch our hearts. God’s also there in starving children and fragile elderly begging for help.

            Research sites that help you pray. The U.S. bishops at www.usccb.org/bible offer daily readings from Scripture with a reflection. The Irish Jesuits at www.sacredspace.ie use simple music and reflections to draw one to contemplative ground. Share what you’ve found with friends.

            Remember that how you say something may be even more important than what you say.

            Converse with people with whom you do not agree and seek common ground from which both of you can move on.

            Establish you own creed for social media behavior e.g.  Don’t deal in put downs, think before you type, find something positive to contribute to the conversation, don’t text while driving and don’t text while someone is sharing real time with you.

            Have the strength to power down. If social media get in the way of your relationship with God, family or friends, let yourself power down. Don’t check the computer until you’ve said good morning to God. Let the day’s last thoughts center on thanking God for his graces rather than a news flash from the Drudge Report.

            Send a tweet to Pope Benedict at @pontifex and download his app to your cellphone or I-pad so you can easily check in with him for his wisdom.

            Social media can touch hearts, notes Pope Benedict in the 2013 World Communications Day address. “When we are present to others, in any way at all, he says, “we are called to make known the love of God to the furthest ends of the earth.”