Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Taipei (Fides Service) – Every parish in every diocese in Taiwan will soon have a computer to improve communication within the local Church, be more effective in the field of social communications, update parish archives and help the Church keep up with the times. These were the reasons given by the Catholic Bishops of Taiwan in a recent statement encouraging the use of computer technology throughout the diocese. The Bishops propose a system Intranet database with baptisms, confirmations and marriages records available on line from any point of the network. This will make the work and life of the dioceses and parishes more functional.
The project was welcomed with enthusiasm by the younger priests and religious who are already accustomed to using computers, but the older priests say it will be difficult to get used to these new means of communications. With this in mind the Bishops have organised courses for parish priests and religious to help them learn computer techniques.
It should be said that the dioceses in Taiwan already have their web sites and that computers are used a lot in the apostolate and parish activities. For some years now in fact the Bishops have stressed the advantages of this modern means and in collaboration with other Christian Churches and the government they supported projects to provide also rural communities with computers. Despite the difficulties encounter in some mountain areas the local Church is promoting with conviction pastoral ministry via the Internet. Taipei archdiocese already has an efficient communications network via e-mail with which it informs in real time about diocesan and parish events and initiatives. Now the Bishops hope to extend this model to the other dioceses to cover the entire church territory. PA (Fides Service 29/9/2003 EM lines 34 Words: 365)
