The Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication issued a new document called “Towards Full Presence: A Pastoral Reflection on Engagement with Social Media.” The document lays out how Catholics should be thinking about their social media engagement—and like the pope’s encyclical Fratelli Tutti, it takes as its model the story of the Good Samaritan, urging people to reach out and listen to those who are different from them, to build community with those people, and to step beyond social media into working creatively for a positive change in the physical world.
This week on “Inside the Vatican,” veteran Vatican correspondent Gerard O’Connell and host Colleen Dulle analyze the document’s strengths and weaknesses.
[Listen and subscribe to “Inside the Vatican” on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.]
On the second part of the show, Colleen and Gerry revisit the story of Sister Lucía Caram, the Argentine nun who drove 2,000 miles each way to bring refugees from Ukraine to Spain, where she lives. In the last 14 months, Sister Lucía has visited Ukraine 18 times, delivered 92 ambulances and helped resettle some 4,000 refugees. Gerry caught up with Sister Lucía in Rome last week; he gives an update on what she has done and seen.
Links from the show
Dicastery for Communication issues document about social media behavior
- Full Document: A Pastoral Reflection on Engagement with Social Media
- Vatican tells the bishops of Catholic Twitter: be reflective, not reactive
- When bishops attack: How Pope Francis handles his critics
Pope Francis meets with Argentine nun about field hospitals in Ukraine
