Catholicism 2.0: The Pope on his iPad

Through Facebook, Youtube, podcasts, and websites, Christian churches are using the Internet to reach new generations. Religious campaigning goes digital. Recently, Pope Benedictus XVI tweeted the launch of News.va, the new Vatican information portal.

Dear friends, I just launched News.va. Praised be our Lord Jesus Christ! With my prayers and blessings, Benedictus XVI.

The new website gathers all the media from the Holy See, including Radio Vatican and The Osservatore Romano newspaper. It’s available in Italian and English, and will soon be translated into other languages. The Vatican is not a rookie at using the web – as early as 1995, Pope John-Paul II launched the Holy See official website, www.vatican.va. Yet News.va changes the game by using social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. On its YouTube page, you can watch the Pope surfing the website on his iPad.

For the New York Times, the Vatican’s strategy is clear:

It is the latest effort by the Vatican to bring its evangelizing message to an Internet-using audience and follows its ventures into Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. […] A result of the Vatican’s recent realization that it can reach a wide new audience by interacting with the outside world rather than merely preaching from afar.

Interested in joining the Holy Orders? The clergy recruits on Facebook

At every level, the clergy is increasingly present on social networks. To curb the lack of recruits, the Benedictine Monks in Portsmouth, Rhode Island created a Facebook page where they share stories about monastic life and why they chose to become a monk. On the abbey’s website, they detail the steps in becoming a monk and answer questions from potential candidates.

In France, the website MaVocation.org also guides those interested in joining the Holy Orders. People can communicate with their churches through their Facebook accounts. For those who prefer podcasts, they can listen to La Rochelle church’s WebTv or Radio Notre-Dame to ponder questions such as:

What is the use of the Church?

Evangelicals: social networks and creationism

The Catholic church isn’t the only one that grasped the Internet’s potential. Evangelical movements have been exploiting the Internet’s possibilities for many years. Apart from traditional websites (AnswerInGenesis.org and other general sites on Christianity), evangelical churches bet on social networks to spread their word.

The Facebook page “I’m proud to be Christian” publishes excerpts from the Bible several times a day, and gathers almost 3 millions fans. The “Jesus Daily” page has 6 million Facebook users. As for the evangelical author Joyce Meyer’s Twitter account, she has more than 280,000 followers. Meyer tries to bring “The love and hope of Jesus Christ to a hurting and broken world” through messages such as:

Even if you think the grass is greener on the other side, you’re going to have to mow that side too.

Appalled by the content on some social networks, Christians created take-off sites that were deemed more appropriate. On the born-again web, MySpace became MyPraize, a website where Christian rock bands compete for the audience’s attention. Youtube was replaced by GodTube, a family-friendly website that promotes evangelical humor with stand-up comedy on marital life. In 2008, a minister created a buzz with his video spoof of “Baby Got Back” which he transformed into the more biblical “Baby Got Book.”

Interviewed by the New York Times, the video’s author Dan Smith explained his objective. He expressed his desire to see his work broadcasted on other networks to reach a wider audience. “I just know there aren’t a lot of unchurched or de-churched people going to GodTube,” he asserted.

Mars Hill: The church of the future?

Aware of YouTube’s potential, some ministers use it to gather more and more followers.

On the YouTube channel for Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Mark Driscoll – a 40 year-old pastor always wearing a hoodie – shares his sermons. Driscoll gathers thousands of church goers thanks to his modern methods of communication.
In his videos, he answers questions via text-message sent by audience members during the service: “Is homosexuality a sin?” “Can Jesus save my parents?”

With his casual apperance, his love for indie rock, and his direct way of talking, Mark Driscoll won over Seattle’s remarkably secular community. According to the New York Times, his popularity has risen above the typical church-goers and has appealed to four of the most famous tattoo artists in the city.

But this innovative communication still has an underlying message, where a woman is supposed to stay by her husband’s side and homosexuality is a sin. Between Evangelicals and communication, the possibilities to convince the crowds evolved – but the message often remains the same.

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Photo credit: Screen shot taken on June 29.
Translation: Marie Telling