Pope to faithful: Stay digitally connected, but have ‘true encounters’

MANILA, Philippines - While modern communications technology allows people in different parts of the world to be connected, Pope Francis has urged the faithful to strive to have “true encounters” with others as nations commemorate today the 48th World Communications Day.

“It is not enough to be passersby on the digital highways, simply ‘connected’; connections need to grow into true encounters,” the CBCPNews quoted Pope Francis as saying.

“We need tenderness. Media strategies do not ensure beauty, goodness and truth in communication. The world of media also has to be concerned with humanity; it too is called to show tenderness,” he added.

The pope also pointed out that online evangelization is not about posting and reposting religious content, but about “our willingness to be available to others.”

“We cannot live apart, closed in on ourselves. We need to love and to be loved… The digital world can be an environment rich in humanity; a network not of wires but of people,” he said.

The Pontiff compared the online Catholic with the Good Samaritan, “who not only draws nearer to the man he finds half dead on the side of the road” but also “takes responsibility for him.”

The wounded man in need of a Good Samaritan, the pope said, is present in the streets of the digital world.

“Those ‘streets’ are the world where people live and where they can be reached, both effectively and affectively. The digital highway is one of them, a street teeming with people who are often hurting, men and women looking for salvation or hope,” he said.

Communication is about “realizing that we are all human beings, children of God. I like seeing this power of communication as ‘neighborliness’,” he added.