Texting and Storming

For Robert Hunt (no, not that Robert Hunt), here's some Roman Catholic views of the world we live in and life in general.

First, noted theologian Nicole Ferraro of Internet Evolution posted the following:

Reuters today reports that "Pope Benedict will text message thousands of young Catholics on their mobile phones during World Youth Day in Sydney in July, hoping going digital will help him connect better with a younger audience."

After noting some examples from the political realm about how many of the political Web 2.0 efforts have been one-way communications, Ferraro continued:

Pope Benedict's use of SMS to "connect" with God-fearing whippersnappers subverts what texting, the Internet, and Web 2.0 is all about, at least in the view of this Catholic. Nothin' against the Pope, Catholicism, or decorative hats -- but having the Vatican's PR reps send more than 200,000 proselytizing, one-way texts is basically just SMS spam, blessèd as it may be.

Moreover, this idea that sending mass texts or having your campaign manager or assistant "friend" us on Facebook will draw people closer to your message -- or trick us into believing that you're hip to this sociability thing -- sort of debases our intelligence and undermines the goal of Web 2.0 and digital technologies.

I guess that Ferraro wants to be able to send a tweet like this:

@paparatz16 pray for my mother who has been sick and cooped up in home. priest hasn't been able to visit

But America Needs Fatima believes that the Lord speaks in mysterious ways.

Weeks after sacrilegious burning of Our Lady's statue, monster volcano erupts in Chile...

Now I have a problem with associating every violent act to sin. See Job, and John 9:1-3. And I'm not a big fan of Marianology. But I'd be willing to bet that the people living around Mount St. Helens probably got a little less rambunctiousness in the summer of 1980.

Because you know that weather can cause some wild storms - but that's a topic for the next post.

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