Spiritualise the web, says the Pope

The Pope is urging Catholics to embrace informationtechnology and add soul to the internet.

Speaking at the Digital Witnesses: Faces and Languages inthe Cross-Media Age conference, Pope Benedict said the faithful should getonline to provide a spiritual aspect to the web.

"Without fear we want to set out upon the digital seaembracing the unrestricted navigation with the same passion that for 2000 yearshas steered the barque of the Church," he said. "More than withtechnical resources, although necessary, we want to qualify ourselves dwellingin this universe too with a believing heart that contributes to giving a soulto the uninterrupted communicational flow of the internet."

"The time in which we live is experiencing an enormousexpansion of the frontiers of communication, realising an untold convergencebetween different media and making interaction possible," he said. "Thusthe internet manifests an open vocation, with an egalitarian and pluralistictendency.

The Pope added, however, that the internet had "dug a moatabout itself", with modern communications too often being the preserve ofwealthier countries. "And thus people speak about the 'digital divide'," hesaid. "It separates the included from the excluded and adds to the otherdiscrepancies that separate nations from each other and divide them internally.

Pope Benedict urged "all media professionals not totire of nourishing in their hearts that passion for man that draws ever closerto the languages he speaks and to his true face".

"The media can become a factor in humanisation not onlywhen, thanks to technological development, it increases the possibilities ofcommunicating information, but above all when it is geared towards a vision ofthe person and the common good that reflects truly universal values," hesaid.