Catholic's Need Social-Networking For Evangelizing

The Catholic Church is called to evangelize the world... Facebook, My Space, Flock Note, Twitter etc. are the means that modern evangelist have to save souls. The Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols, the leader of Roman Catholics in England and Wales has condemned the use of social networking sites; claiming that social networking tools under-mine humanity. He believes the focus has been on quantity rather than quality of friends, and only taking a surface approach to friendship. “Friendship is something that is hard work and enduring when it's right” says Archbishop Nichols, but he does not recall the Pope Benedict XVI asking faithful to use technology. It is difficult to find friends of faith and using a tool such as Facebook having people of faith around you is a blessing. In contrast to Archbishop Nichol’s argument, I know many people who use social networking to find good friends who share their faith. Good friendships can be pursued with people of different faith backgrounds, but sharing one’s faith with other members of the mystical body of Christ aids you on your path to holiness it makes the journey easier.
The theme for Pope Benedict’s Day of Technology on May 24, 2009 was: “New Technologies, New Relationships: Promoting a Culture of Respect, Dialogue and Friendship!” The Holy Father does not Catholics to run away from technology. He wants us to embrace it for the furthering of the faith in a technology driven world. Pope Benedict warns Catholics not to be obsessive or allow families to suffer from virtual acquaintances. He says modern technology has “extraordinary potential” and in his May speeches the Pope asked the “digital generation…to bring the witness of their faith to the digital world” blogging, writing and texting as a new medium for evangelizing. Pope Benedict is asking the Catholic Digital-Generation to work against the cyber-bulling, indecencies, inhumanities on the web to bring Christians closer to Christ. The Holy Father is asking faithful to protect technology from Satan; we cannot run away from it, we are obliged to minister to those using technology. We as Catholics are not to condemn social-networking sites; we are to employ these tools to forge new friendships, fight together against temptation, and us the modern media to educate for the salvation of souls.
CNS Spero News