Mood: Holy.

His Popiness, Pope Benedict XVI, has urged Catholic priests to go forth and blog in an effort to connect with more people and ultimately get more asses in pews. The 265th Pope is no stranger to the internet, as the Vatican launched a YouTube channel last year to get the word of God out to the digitally connected masses.

Citing the “broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis” presented by social media, Big Pope-a quoted the scripture in his plea for priests to get out and evangelize:

Such is the lofty dignity and beauty of the mission of the priest, which responds in a special way to the challenge raised by the Apostle Paul: “The Scripture says, ‘No one who believes in him will be put to shame … everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ But how can they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach? And how can people preach unless they are sent? (Rom 10:11, 13-15).

His Holiness gently reminded priests who might be neglecting the opportunities presented to reach potential churchgoers that Jesus is totally watching them and their reticence makes him kind of sad:

Responding adequately to this challenge amid today’s cultural shifts, to which young people are especially sensitive, necessarily involves using new communications technologies. The world of digital communication, with its almost limitless expressive capacity, makes us appreciate all the more Saint Paul’s exclamation: “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel” (1 Cor 9:16) The increased availability of the new technologies demands greater responsibility on the part of those called to proclaim the Word, but it also requires them to become become more focused, efficient and compelling in their efforts. Priests stand at the threshold of a new era: as new technologies create deeper forms of relationship across greater distances, they are called to respond pastorally by putting the media ever more effectively at the service of the Word.

Ooh, Word? Capitalized? Bill Gates might like a word with you about that, Father.

And, says the Pope, no half assing. In what actually may have been the first time I’ve felt like adding an “Amen” in my entire Catholic life, Pope Benedict says that it’s not enough to fill the web with content, it must be meaningful and relevant and worth reading.

The spread of multimedia communications and its rich “menu of options” might make us think it sufficient simply to be present on the Web, or to see it only as a space to be filled. Yet priests can rightly be expected to be present in the world of digital communications as faithful witnesses to the Gospel, exercising their proper role as leaders of communities which increasingly express themselves with the different “voices” provided by the digital marketplace. Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites) which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis.

In all honesty, it’s definitely a step in the right direction for the Vatican to get priests out and preaching the word of God via blogs, Facebook and Twitter. Maybe since the Catholic Church, which is literally older than Jesus, has embraced the changing market and new challenges presented therein, the music and book publishing industries will follow suit.

Pope urges priests to embrace social media, start blogging is a post from: The Inquisitr

The head of the Catholic Church in England is claiming that Facebook and other social networking sites are leading to teen suicide.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols claims that the rise of social networks means that teenagers aren’t developing real relationships (what he calls “transient relationships”) that could drive them to kill themselves

“Friendship is not a commodity, friendship is something that is hard work and enduring when it’s right,” the ABC quoted him as saying. “I think there’s a worry that an excessive use, or an almost exclusive use of text and emails means that as a society we’re losing some of the ability to build interpersonal communication that’s necessary for living together and building a community.”

The crux of his argument seems to be that teens are forgoing real world relationships for online ones. I don’t have the statistics to disprove him, and its likely that is some cases this may be true. The problem though with the line is that it’s a gross generalization that ignores both the good social networking offers, and the real underlying problems that are a cause of teen suicide.

Teens who find it difficult to make friends in real life don’t magically become suicidal due to Facebook; the problem is pre-existing. But many teens who may find it difficult to make friends in real life are able to connect online to others, to make new friends, and to actually gain some self worth. The internet allows them to connect to others like them, others who share their interests where they are unable to find people who do in their local community. For the Catholic Church to rally against this makes about as much sense as their stance on condoms and birth control; none. Indeed suggesting that teens who connect online don’t have real friendships is dangerous, and is far more likely to cause teen suicide than using Facebook or MySpace will.

Catholic Church claims using Facebook leads to suicide is a post from: The Inquisitr

The drag queen singer known as “Big Mama Capretta” has outed himself as a practicing gay Catholic priest from Colomnbus, Ohio.

Vincent Capretta, known to his flock has “Father Anthony” said in a statement that “It’s Big Mama, y’all! And I am no longer afraid to come out of the closet as a gay Catholic priest! I am enjoying my life being who I am and who God intended me to be! Now let’s dance, y’all!”

Big Mama may not be a household name yet, but he/ she currently has the number 25 spot on the U.S. Billboard Club Play dance chart.

Here’s Big Mama’s latest song. Three hail marys and a couple of bloody marys for the road.

(Pic/ via: The Advocate)

Pick what’s wrong with this sentence: Gay Catholic Priest has minor dance hit singing in drag is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Catholic Church in Ireland is encouraging parishioners to send daily prayer messages by Twitter and similar short message services.

Cardinal Sean Brady told a gathering “I appeal to every Christian in Ireland today who sends texts, Twitters or uses e-mail to think about setting up groups of prayer between you and your friends using these modern means of communication…I ask young people in particular to think of sending their friends and family an occasional Twitter or text to say that you have prayed for them. Make someone the gift of a prayer through text, Twitter or e-mail every day.”

Cardinal Brady, described by local press as “Ireland’s leading Catholic churchman” predicted that such a sea of prayer would strengthen a national sense of solidarity with one another, particularly for those suffering due to the recession.

Catholic Church in Ireland encourages prayers by Twitter is a post from: The Inquisitr

Can you guess what the above logo is? Is it A: a sexual abuse by priests support group logo, B: a logo for a crazy brand of umbrellas, or C: The Catholic Church’s Archdiocesan Youth Commission. If you picked C, you’d be right.

This logo for the Catholic Church’s Archdiocesan Youth Commission dates from 1973, and won an award from the Art Directors Club of Los Angeles in 1974.

As I Hate The Media points out, those were simpler times, but still….

Most Inappropriate Logo Design Ever is a post from: The Inquisitr

A proposed bill in Connecticut would strip Vatican control over the finances of local Catholic Churches, a suggestion that not surprisingly has Catholic clergy up in arms.

CT Bill 1098 would replace an existing law that defines Catholic churches and congregations as nonprofit corporations operated by a five-member board of three clergy and two laypeople. Instead, the board would be made up of seven to 13 laypeople elected by parishioners. The pastor would not be a member of the board and the bishop would serve as an ex officio nonvoting member, reports Catholic News.

The legislation, proposed by two Catholic members of the Connecticut State Legislature, was in response to an embezzlement conviction of a Connecticut priest. By removing church control over financial affairs, clergy wouldn’t be able to fiddle the books.

The Catholic Church naturally opposes the bill, saying that it was an infringement of their constitutional rights, and went against the apostolic nature of the Catholic Church. Oh, and it’s a conspiracy by gay marriage activists, writes Bridgeport Bishop William Lori: “This bill, moreover, is a thinly-veiled attempt to silence the Catholic Church on the important issues of the day, such as same-sex marriage.”

The bill has been pulled for now, and tabled for the rest of the legislative session, although could return in the future.

Connecticut Bill proposes to take the Vatican out of Church finances is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Australian White Pages, published by Telstra subsidiary Sensis, has a rather interesting way of categorizing the Catholic Church: under magic shop.

A search for “magic shop” under businesses in Queensland returns the primary listing for the Catholic Church, along with all the instances of the church in the state.

While the atheist in me immediately finds this amusing, and an accurate description, I doubt somehow that the Catholic Church will.

(thx to MR for the tip)

Sensis White Pages lists Catholic Church under magic shop is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Vatican has joined the YouTube revolution with an official YouTube channel.

Pope Benedict welcomed viewers to this “great family that knows no borders” and said he hoped they would “feel involved in this great dialogue of truth.”

Vatican Radio described the launch as “a day that writes a new page in history for the Holy See.”

Church officials said that it hoped to broaden and unite the Pope’ audience with the YouTube channel, while giving the Holy See better control over the Pope’s Internet image.

Bizarrely though, all videos on the channel have embedding disabled, so you can watch, but never share the message.

You can follow the Pope on YouTube at www.youtube.com/vatican

(via Huffington Post)

The Vatican launches YouTube Channel is a post from: The Inquisitr

A newspaper published by the Vatican has claimed that the contraceptive pill is polluting the environment and is responsible for male infertility.

The report in L’Osservatore Romano claims the Pill is responsible for releasing tons of hormones into nature through female urine, polluting the environment and causing unknown damage to the world around us.

But it gets better: these free ranging female hormones are also causing men to become infertile as well. The paper quotes studies by the WHO related bodies that some estrogen in the environment in large doses has carcinogenic properties, then matches them to male infertility.

The Vatican’s solution: natural methods of contraception, or to be more precise: not having sex (apologies for the translation):

The sad thing in all this is that if it is to regulate fertility, these are not the product required. The natural means of regulating fertility ( “NFP” or Natural Family Planning) are equally effective and also respect the kind of person.

But why stop there when you can cite the Universal Deceleration of Human Rights:

In this sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights can be said that the means of contraception violate at least five important rights: the right to life, the right to health, the right to education, the right to (their spread occurs to the detriment of the natural resources) and the right to equality between the sexes (the burden of contraception falls mostly on women).

Not surprising, a number of experts disagree with the Vatican on the matter.

Vatican Claims Contraceptive Pill is Bad for the Environment, Sperm is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Vatican has condemned the sculpture as blasphemous, and demanded that the museum take it down, but the board of the Museion museum in Bolzano decided by majority vote to keep Zuerst die Fuesse” (Feet First) by German artist Martin Kippenberger up.

The artist who passed on in 1997 considered it a self-portrait illustrating human angst.

Personally all I see is a green frog on a cross, and the mug he’s holding to be representative of a storm in a tea cup, but having said that I’m no artist.

Details of the Museum and exhibitions can be found here.

(via)

Crucified frog upsets Pope is a post from: The Inquisitr