“I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves” – Matthew 10:16
Journey of the Magi by James Tissot.

The revolution taking place in communications media and in information technologies represents a great and thrilling challenge; may we respond to that challenge with fresh energy and imagination as we seek to share with others the beauty of God. – Pope Francis

I. The New Evangelization Movement: Get the Message Out

Keeping the doors of our churches open also means keeping them open in the digital environment so that people, whatever their situation in life, can enter, and so that the Gospel can go out to reach everyone. – Pope Francis

Pope Francis with dove in Assisi, Italy

May the light we bring to others not be the result of cosmetics or special effects, but rather of our being loving and merciful “neighbors” to those wounded and left on the side of the road.  Let us boldly become citizens of the digital world. – Pope Francis

Christ sending out the Seventy Disciples by James Tissot.

Social media is like sending out seventy disciples multiplied by seventy thousand. With technology enabled tools that create and integrate multiple platforms, a sincere unified message can be sent out.

The Internet in particular, offers immense possibilities for encounter and solidarity. This is something truly good, a gift from God. – Pope Francis

Pope Francis with youth posing for a selfie in St. Peter’s Square.

The digital world can be an environment rich in humanity; a network not of wires but of people.  . . . Christian witness, thanks to the internet, can thereby reach the peripheries of human existence. – Pope Francis

The New Evangelization is the most important movement in the Church today. First, because it concerns evangelization, the Church’s most basic task. – Brandon Vogt

… the Church has barely tapped its potential. Imagine telling St. Paul, St. Augustine or St. Thomas that in less than a second you could beam a message to millions of people around the world — and do it for free. Those guys would have given their right arms for such a tool. – Brandon Vogt

II. Social Media: Where People Congregate, Connect and are Active

Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh, Ireland. An unlikely technology leader.

“Our challenge as evangelisers has always been to reach out and encounter people where they are at, and nowadays, more and more that means online!” If only to be able to reach our young people and an increasing percentage of people of all ages, we need to be present in this new age.  – Archbishop Eamon Martin

Fr. James Martin SJ, connecting Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to get the message out.

The Internet has become like the nervous system of our culture, in which more and more people are expressing and exploring their identity, picking up and discarding their values and attitudes, expressing their feelings and prejudices, befriending and unfriending each other, measuring each other’s status and importance, relevance and appearance. If our young people are living in this gigantic network, then we, as people of faith need to be in there, dialogging with the inhabitants of this world, with the men and women who dwell in the web! – Archbishop Eamon Martin

The official Twitter page of Pope Francis. Over 4.5 million followers.

I quote from the Pope’s Message: ‘The digital highway is … a street teeming with people who are often hurting, men and women looking for salvation or hope. By means of the Internet, the Christian message can reach “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8)’.

III. Social Media Services – The Gift Giveaway

Everything we have received is a gift from God. We respond to his love by giving it away, by showing it in a way of serving. – David Fleming S.J.

Social Media services provided upon request.
ShrineTower@gmail.com
@shrinetower (Twitter)

Credits:
Credits – Message of Pope Francis for the 48th World Communications Day [(6/1/14)
Credits – Brandon Vogt interview.
Credits – Archbishop Eamon Martin (Ireland) ‘The New media and the work of Evangelisation