“Don’t be afraid to bring Christ to others in this new form,” Pope John Paul II has said.
The Church needs bloggers and bloggers need the Church, participants at a meeting between 150 bloggers and Vatican officials agreed.
The meeting, on May 2, was sponsored by the pontifical councils for culture and for social communications. Bloggers were acknowledged as vital in spreading a correct understanding of the Catholic faith, since the mainstream media often misrepresent Church teaching.
I can expand on the important role that bloggers and websites play in the world concerning religious communities. Blogs and websites go far in letting the world know about contemplative life, according to a sister of the Dominican Nuns of Summit, NJ, who was interviewed via Skype TV at the Institute on Religious Life National Meeting this past weekend in Mundelein, IL.
Cautious step into internet world
After a careful study in 1998-99 as to whether they should use the internet, the sisters decided to have a beautiful one built, at https://www.summitdominicans.org, whereas their blog is at https://www.summitdominicans.org/blog/. The sisters use not only the website, but shopping sites and email. Judging from comments they receive and the experience they have had with the internet, the sisters noted these points about its use:
- The website has been a positive tool for women of ordinary life. The blog, which they update with a post every two to three days, is written by two sisters.
- The blog is also good for educating the parents of sisters, many of whom think that the contemplative life is a “fate worse than death.” The blog educates others as to “what contemplative life really is, not what they think it is.”
- The blog and website offer no guarantee of vocations, although it has allowed a good amount of interaction with others.
- The community sensed a need to make the website beautiful. If it was not attractive, the site would not reflect the beauty of contemplative life.
- The website educates others that there is a Dominican contemplative life, as opposed to that of the Benedictines and Poor Clares.
Echoing the thoughts of popes John Paul II and Benedict, communities should not be afraid of using the internet, if done with prudence and discernment, the sister said.
Shopping for shoes online
In some ways, the use of email and the internet is more conducive to their mode of life. For example, email lends itself to being less of an interruption than if the sisters carried cell phones. Their online store offers books, medals, statues and soaps. And the sisters shop for their shoes online.
“We are called by Baptism to bring Christ to the world,” the sister said. In the words of Pope John Paul II, she said, “Don’t be afraid to bring Christ to others in this new form.”
