AMERICA/HONDURAS - 10th Continental Meeting of the Computer Network of the Church in Latin America (RIIAL): new forms of presence and service in the light of the Continental Mission. Archbishop Celli calls for a “deaconate of digital culture"

Tegucigalpa (Agenzia Fides) - With a Mass presided by Cardinal Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga, Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, and the inaugural session the 10th Continental Meeting of the Computer Network of the Church in Latin America (RIIAL) was opened on 17 September in Tegucigalpa (Honduras) with the participation of more than 60 representatives of countries of Latin America and Europe. Present for the meeting besides Cardinal Maradiaga, also Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, Archbishop of i Buenos Aires (Argentina). The meeting is important for the impact it will have on the Great Continental Mission launched at the end of the 5th General Conference of the Council of Bishops' Conferences of Latin America and the Caribbean in Aparecida (Brazil) last May. The theme of this RIIAL Meeting "Today's poverty is poverty of knowledge and use and access to new technologies", is taken from the Final Document of Aparecida.
Cardinal Maradiaga said in his opening discourse on the theme "Disciples and Missionaries in the digital era", that evangelisation today must use new communication technology especially the Internet. Parishes in Honduras are offering courses in computer skills and use of the Internet to children and young people who would otherwise not have access to this technology and they are planning to supply the children with portable computers.
Archbishop Claudio M. Celli, President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, in his address "Challenges to Ecclesial Communication", stressed the importance of RIIAL for the Pontifical Council, recalling how the network started encouraged by CELAM and the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, to promote the use of new technologies and to make the latter accessible to the poorest people. "We see a technological panorama in full acceleration which cannot leave us indifferent, it challenges us directly. The universal Church is preparing for the next Synod of Bishops which will focus precisely on the Word of God in the life of the Church" said Archbishop Celli. "Now that Aparecida has indicated a new season of the Church in Latin America" Archbishop Celli said presenting some challenges of the present: inculturation of the Gospel; harmonisation, formation, sense, information, inclusion. "RIIAL since it was started has been much more than technology. It is spirit of service for communion in the field of the new technologies. Let us then continue along this line, creating an authentic deaconate of digital culture " Archbishop Celli concluded.
The principal goals of the 10th Continental Meeting of the Computer Network of the Church in Latin America (RIIAL) are to plan new forms of RIIAL presence and service on the continent in the light of the Continental Mission launched by the 5th General Conference of the Council of Bishops' Conferences of Latin America and the Caribbean in Aparecida; analyse RIIAL services in comparison with the needs of today, making maximum use of the new technological panorama and multimedia culture; offer bishops new criteria and practical policies to improve the Church's evangelising presence in digital culture. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 18/9/2007; righe 37, parole 491)