U.S. Bishops Consider Challenges of Social Media

     A headline in a recent national catechetical news bulletin reads like this: 

               Bishops To Address Challenges, Opportunities In Digital Age


     The U.S. bishops will discuss a possible official Church statement on doctrine in the digital age at their November 12-15 (2012) meeting in Baltimore

     Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, chairman of the Doctrine Committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), will present the statement "Contemporary Challenges and Opportunities for the Exercise of the Teaching Ministry of the Diocesan Bishop." Later, it will be voted on by the entire assembly of bishops.

      The draft document cites the "quantum leap" in the speed of mass communications since the invention of the internet. It demands that bishops "respond immediately when Church teaching is challenged or misrepresented." The bishops also face the challenge that amidst many voices in the digital world -- "a bishop's voice on the Internet can appear to be just another in the competition for attention" requiring bishops to explain to people the nature of their authority.

     Cardinal Wuerl's writing also notes that the new digital media "constitute a blade that can cut two ways"

     New social media "create new difficulties for bishops in the exercise of their teaching office" yet "they also offer powerful new tools for more effective ministry."

      A key benefit of most new media is "that they offer the bishop the possibility of communicating with people in a relatively unmediated fashion," the statement says.

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