The Vatican Goes Mobile
Look carefully at who may soon add you as a friend on Facebook.
It might just include a poke from the Pope.
In an attempt to ostensibly reach a younger generation of Catholics, the Vatican has started using Facebook as a networking site for the religious faithful.
www.pope2you.net is now available and offers an application called “The pope meets you on Facebook,” and another that provides access to the Pope’s speeches on their iPhones.
Although it may seem an unorthodox move, it isn’t the first of its kind.
In 2005, a program called Azan was created and made available for download which essentially served to remind Muslims of their five important prayer times per day.
Now the Catholic Church will similarly give the mobile realm their “blessing.”
Sorry, I had to.
“We recognize that a church that does not communicate ceases to be a church,” said Monsignor Paul Tighe, secretary of the Vatican’s Social Communications department. “Many young people today are not turning to traditional media like newspapers and magazines any more for information and entertainment. They are looking to a different media culture, and this is our effort to ensure that the Church is present in that communications culture.”
The new apps are now available in Italian, English, Spanish, French and Dutch.
Something worth downloading this weekend when I’m in line to see “Angels and Demons.”
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