Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Tokyo (Agenzia Fides) - In Japan the blog is rapidly becoming an ever more popular channel for evangelising, especially among young people. Bishops, priests, religious and lay bloggers are drawing growing interest contact and blog questions from the general public.
A weblog or blog is a html page of mainly text where a person communicates thoughts, reflections and welcomes comment by net users. The author of the blog is both reader and editor: he or she reads material on the web and then edits his own blog which is continually enriched with input.
Catholic Bishop Isao Kikuchi, 48, of Nigata diocese says he updates his blog every day: it started as a page for news but soon became interactive for an exchange of opinions with all sorts of people.
Bishop Kenjiro Koriyama, 64, of the diocese of Kagoschima, has a blog on which he makes film and audio files available to a vast number of people with increasing feed-back. Sr Hiromi Shimokama, 55, of age a Daughter of Mary Help of Christians, has a blog “Prayer of the Sea Lion”, Sr Tanako Ono, aged 49 a Daughter of Saint Paul Sister says “a blog is a new form of communication, indispensable for young people; a sort net-diary where people can open their hearts and encounter God”. The Catholic community in Japan has decided to focus attention on evangelisation on the web a new forum for announcing the “Good News”. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 2/4/2007 righe 26 parole 267)
