ASIA/IRAQ - Chaldean Patriarchate launches the alarm: the web used for personal attacks and ecclesial controversy

Tuesday, 25 September 2018 middle east oriental churches the internet

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Baghdad (Agenzia Fides) - Even the Patriarchate of Babylon of the Chaldeans, as other Patriarchates of Eastern Churches have already done, launches the alarm regarding the abuse of internet and social media as tools to foment controversy and conflict within the ecclesial community and spread ideas and judgments that harm the spiritual life of the faithful and their concern in following the teachings of the Church.
The Chaldean Patriarchate, in a message released through his official channels, intends to express a "word of reassurance" for believers and readers, faced with the rampant phenomenon of misleading speeches and manipulative texts published online on issues related to the life of the Church and Christian communities. When the limit of decency exceeds, the Chaldean Patriarchate declares himself ready to resort to legal and administrative procedures to prosecute defamatory sentences and even attacks against the Holy See.
The text also denounces the invasive speeches of improvised commentators, who claim to treat all users of the web as "unskilled and ignorant people", giving lessons to everyone and trying to impose new rules and obligations on issues of morality, presenting themselves as custodians of prerogatives that belong to the Pope and the Bishops. The patriarchal message emphasizes that often this propensity to stand as judges of others is exercised by people living in distant countries, outside any real relationship with the dynamics experienced in Iraq and the Middle East.
In exceptional cases - the text reads - the ecclesiastical authority can respond according to circumstances, with legal or administrative tools, to put an end to the dissemination of defamatory content and counterfeit information, which is likely to have serious effects, precisely because we live in a time in which, with the development of digital media, many people give more credit to the virtual world than to the reality of the facts.
The patriarchal pronouncement refers to the many who intervene on topics connected to the ecclesial life without having knowledge and adequate information of the problems.
The abuse of the Internet to manipulate content and dynamics of an ecclesial character is a phenomenon that Churches have to face throughout the world, and which in recent times the Churches of the East highlight their concern.
In Egypt, the tragic story of the homicide in the monastery of Coptic Orthodox Bishop Epiphanius - and of the arrest of a monk accused of being the executor of the crime - has accelerated the process of discernment around the monastic life which already started long ago in the Orthodox Coptic Church. Already a few days after the murder of Anba Epipanius (see Fides 6/8/2018), the Committee for the monasteries of the Orthodox Coptic Synod ordered 12 rules - ratified by Patriarch Tawadros II - to which all those who live the monastic condition in the Coptic Orthodox Church should abide by. This is why monks and nuns were asked to close their personal accounts and any blogs on social media, considered with critical eyes as tools used above all to spread "confusing ideas". Last April (see Fides 13/4/2018) the Maronite Church issued a document entitled "The truth that liberates and unites". The patriarchal text, released on Monday, April 9 (the same day in which the Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis "Gaudete et exsultate" on the call to holiness in the modern world was published) presented itself as a true doctrinal and pastoral handbook to offer criteria and points of reference that should inspire and guide speeches and debates focused on issues concerning the Catholic faith and the magisterium of the Church. This pronouncement – referring to the introductory part - appeared necessary after recent disputes over doctrinal issues - also through social media - had taken on some exasperated forms and tones, incompatible with the criteria suggested by the ecclesial communion, and risking to spread doubts and confusion among the faithful. (GV) (Agenzia Fides, 25/9/2018)