Kansas City Star: Catholics embrace social media with limits
Benedict XVI, the first pope with his own YouTube channel and presence on Facebook, is urging Roman Catholic clergy to use social media to communicate with parishioners and reach those outside the church.
"Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, Web sites) which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis," the pope declared in January in preparation for World Communications Day in May.
But the Catholic Church has policies that take the "social" out of social media. Parishes that use social media, such as Facebook, are instructed to disable the comment functions of those sites.
The Orlando Diocese's rules for the use of social media, enacted in August after six months of study and debate, expressly prohibit blogs because they imply two-way communication that encourages responses from the public, said Carole Brinati, a diocese spokeswoman.
"Blogging is 'I can comment on that,' and that is what we don't allow," she said. "Some people feel that is shortsighted, but that is our policy."
The purpose of the pope's push for social media is to get the church's message out to the people in as many ways as possible. It's not intended to spark debate; invite opinions and opposing points of view; or open a dialogue between church leaders and parishioners, Brinati said.
Churches have been riding the social-media wave for some time now. Many denominations reach out – either through their own Web sites or sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
By their nature, social media are wide open and egalitarian: Anyone with a keyboard and an opinion is entitled to join the conversation. That makes the incorporation of social media difficult for hierarchical religious organizations or denominations, said the Rev. Anthony Pogorelc, a research fellow at Catholic University's Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies in Washington.
"In some sense there is a tension between social media and traditional, hierarchical organizations like the Catholic Church," Pogorelc said. "With social media, everyone has a voice and can say what they want. In the system of the Catholic Church, more weight is given to the key spokespersons – the bishops or leaders of the church – and what they say." …
Blogging and Facebook without comments aren't social media in my book. It is a regularly updated web page, but there is nothing social about it.
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