Vatican Unveils YouTube Channel

Source

VATICAN CITY -- On Friday Pope Benedict XVI launched his own YouTube channel. The Vatican said it was launching the channel to broaden Pope Benedict's audience while also giving the Holy See better control over the papal image online. Pope Benedict welcomed viewers to this "great family that knows no borders"...

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Commentary

The complete article (which requires a registered account to read) includes Pope Benedict's warning that virtual socializing had its risks:
* "obsessive" online networking could isolate people from real social interaction;
* it can broaden the digital divide by further marginalizing people.

His Holiness addressed producers of new media in his message for the World Day of Communications when he urged them to ensure that the content respect human dignity and the "goodness and intimacy of human sexuality."

Then there was this tidbit, which gave me a chuckle: "The 81-year-old pope has been extremely wary of new media and their effect on society." That’s like saying a man who sends his soup back to the kitchen because it has a fly is extremely wary of dinnerware. The problem isn’t the delivery vehicle (i.e. dinnerware), the problem is the content that the vehicle delivers (i.e. soup with a fly) -- in this case, material that doesn't respect human dignity and the goodness and intimacy of human sexuality.

Of course, it's easier to call a guy a Luddite than to set a moral safeguard on one's revenue stream.

Non potestis Deo servire et mammonæ.