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Mons.
Tighe's talk at 2013 Catholic
New Media Conference: "The Vatican
and Digital Media”
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Because of
its expanding use of social media and handling of Pope Francis' wildly popular
Twitter account, the Vatican is learning a wide range of lessons on the nature
of authority in the 21st century, one of the officials who handles its new
media outreach has said.
At the
center of those lessons, said Msgr. Paul Tighe, is the fact that the church can
no longer claim authority without working for it.
"The
social media landscape is peer to peer, it's free and it's open," said
Tighe, the second-in-command at the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Social
Communications, speaking Saturday at a conference on the use of so-called new
media.
"That's
not the immediate description of the church at times," he continued.
"What we need to realize is when in an environment where authority is
different ... authority, broadly, we have to earn it rather than we can claim
it."
Tighe, an
Irishman who served as the director of public affairs for the Dublin
archdiocese before taking up the job as secretary for the pontifical council in
2007, gave the keynote at the conference, hosted by the Boston archdiocese.
Speaking
for more than an hour, the Vatican official laced his talk with both tidbits on
the inside day-to-day running of the pope's Twitter accounts, available in
English @Pontifex and in several other languages, and with deeper insights into
what his council's work means for the future direction of the church.
Explaining
that the pope's Twitter posts, called tweets, are re-tweeted more than any
other public figure, Tighe said that shows that church "comes not from the
center, but from the local."
"How
would it look for the church to build a capillary network?" he asked.
"So that the church becomes interactive, using the platform of the
Pontifex account."
He said
people who re-tweet the pope may end up "touching the hearts of people who
might not normally choose to read the Gospel message or the thought of the
church."
Tighe also
said Vatican officials were surprised with how quickly Twitter followers
latched onto the pope's efforts for a day of prayer for peace in Syria as part
of his call against U.S. military intervention in the country.
Officials
at the communications office chose for the event a special hashtag -- a way for
Twitter users to easily categorize each others tweets -- labeled #Prayforpeace.
"It's
almost like the hashtag became the point of contact for Catholic communities
around the world to get that message out there," said Tighe.
"The
hashtag created this almost subversive network of people who were getting the
word out there, even though it wasn't getting a huge amount of play in the
mainstream media."
Tighe also
said his office was surprised at how quickly the pope's first message in
English, made Friday for a conference in the Philippines, spread on Facebook.
Within 3.5 hours of posting, Tighe said, some 250,000 Facebook users had shared
the message.
Church
officials, Tighe said, have to realize that young people in the 21st century
are "forming relationships and creating community in a different way."
"That
is challenging all of us because the change is not in technologies, but it's a
change in communication itself," he said.
Tighe also
likened the church's work in the digital sphere, what he called the
"digital continent," with its evangelization of the world's physical
continents in past centuries. Missionary efforts in places like Africa or Asia
"began with an understanding of the language and its culture," he
said.
Coming to
the concept of authority, Tighe said members of his generation grew up with a
linear sense of communication and authority.
"We
grew up with the idea of the pulpit," he said. "I'm here. I talk; you
listen. The microphone let us reach further. The radio took us even further.
The TV let you see us as well as hear us. But we were at the center and you
were out there consuming."
"New
media is different," he continued. "I speak, I talk, I reflect, I say
something. If you like it, or if you disagree with it enough to comment on it …
you might share it."
"It's
participative," he said. "It's interactive. If I say something, I
have to be prepared to answer questions back."
Pope
Francis has some 10 million followers on Twitter across accounts in eight
languages. Tighe's office manages those accounts as well as many of the
Vatican's other social media efforts, including the News.va portal, which
collects many of the pope's statements and official acts on one website.
Here is a
video of Tighe's full address at the Boston conference, made available by the
archdiocese. His remarks start at about the six-minute mark.
[Joshua J.
McElwee is NCR national correspondent. His email address is
jmcelwee@ncronline.org. Follow him on Twitter: @joshjmac.]
UPDATE: The
Pontifical Council for Social Communications has now made an unofficial
transcript of Tighe's remarks available online here.
Related Articles:
"Recalibration of Free Choice"– Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth, 4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical) 8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)
“… 1 - Spirituality
(Religions)
Number one:
Spirituality. The systems of spiritual design on your planet are starting to
change. This is not telling you that certain ones are going to go away. They're
simply going to change. Some of the largest spiritual systems, which you would
call organized religion on the planet, are shifting. They're going to shift
away from that which is authority on the outside to authority on the inside. It
will eventually be a different way of worship, slowly changing the rules while
keeping the basic doctrine the same.
The
doctrine of the Christ has always been to find the God inside. The teachings
were clear. The examples of the miracles were given as an example of what
humans could do, not to set a man up for worship as a God. So when that has
been absorbed, the teaching of the Christ can remain the teaching of the
Christ. It simply changes the interpretation.
The
teachings of the great prophets of the Middle East (all related to each other)
are about unity and love. So once the holy words are redefined with new wisdom,
the Human changes, not the words of the prophets. In fact, the prophets become
even more divinely inspired and their wisdom becomes even more profound.
You're
going to lose a pope soon. I have no clock. Soon to us can mean anything to
you. The one who replaces him may surprise you, for his particular organization
will be in survival mode at that point in time. That is to say that fewer and
fewer are interested in starting the priesthood. Fewer and fewer young people
are interested in the organization, and the new pope must make changes to keep
his church alive. That means that his organization will remain, but with a more
modern look at what truly is before all of you in a new energy. It is not the
fall of the church. It is instead the recalibration of the divinity inside that
would match the worship that goes on. It's a win-win situation. The new pope
will have a difficult time, since the old guard will still be there. There could
even be an assassination attempt, such is the way the old energy dies hard.
That is number one. Watch for it. It's a change in the way spiritual systems
work. It's a realignment of spiritual systems that resound to a stronger truth
that is Human driven, rather than prophet driven. …”
"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)
