The Church in a Digital World
World Communications Day Lecture
Paul Tighe
London, 5 June 2014
Context
• Church and Communications
• Mission – bring Good News to ends of the earth
• Communication – constitutive human activity, flourishing of
society, face future
• Related – contribution and concern
• World Communications Day Messages – audiences (all,
specialists, believers)
• Benedict to Francis – digital revolution
• Francis – promote authentic culture of encounter (nearness,
solidarity)
Digital World
• Revolution/Transformation – cultural, change in
communications
• Identity, relationships and Community (Foresight, Beddington)
• ‘New media’ – newness, dynamics, evolving, radical
• Digital is real – must be present (@pontifex)
• Avoid dualism – interpenetration (Jurgenson)
• Media ‘ecosystem’ – environment, beyond instruments and
use
Citizens
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Good or Bad
Positive – gift for humanity, from God (not naïve)
Human achievement – User Generated Culture
Agency – regulation and individual responsibility
Social – intrinsic ethic (Trust)
Values/Attitudes – respect, honesty, objectivity, reason,
openness, listening
Professionals – bad and good, highest standards (price)
Culture of Encounter - value other, quality of relationships
Dialogue – listening, learning, sharing (more than a tactic)
Authenticity
Believers
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Shared task
Giving a soul – integral humanity
Questions – not selling, imposing or manipulating
Witness – time, walking with others, rule for the pilgrim
Sharing source of joy and hope
Neighbour – nearness, closeness
Good Samaritan – compassion, mercy, tenderness
Imitate and Recognize
Time to speak – time to let love speak (Deus caritas est, 31)
Language
• Style – conversational, participative, engagement , listen,
converse, encourage
• Institutional challenge – subsidiarity, devolved interactivity
(glocal)
• Modes – beyond the text, multimedia (beauty), warming
hearts
• Show rather than tell – experience of living (Stained Glass Facebook, Youtube, apps)
• Vocabulary - words, icons, rituals (grammar of simplicity)
• Christ the Perfect Communicator – his words not ours (lectio
divina)
• Vision, values and norms – Yes before No
Conversion
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Witness/Authenticity – Encounter with Christ
Savouring the Word (silence and solitude) – actio segue esse
Silence and Solitude
Turning other cheek
Trust – professional and graced, no complacency yet ….
Faith – mustard seed/yeast
Convergence
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Strategy – convergence not competition
Learn by doing – innovate, measure, reflect
Networked learning – sharing, refining, adapting
Travel light – platforms change
Take risks – mol an oige agus tiocfaidh si
Organic development – no master plan/no gurus
Laity and clergy – penetrate world with Christian
spirit/witness to Christ in midst of human society (Gaudium et
spes, 43)
Receptivity
• Anthropological grounds - connection, searching, play,
sharing, following
• Engage – friendship, truth, beauty, self-giving, openness
• Critique false gods (wealth, power, fame) – truth in love
• Augustine – only with God will my soul be at rest
• Nostalgia, yearning
• Mystery - encounter is personal ,no manipulation or
engineering
The Church in a Digital World
World Communications Day Lecture
Paul Tighe
London, 5 June 2014