The moment holds a special place in the annals of Vatican history: On the afternoon of Feb. 12, 1931, Pope Pius XI launched Vatican Radio, declaring in an intercontinental transmission: “Listen, O heavens, to that which I say; Listen, O Earth, listen to the words which come from my mouth. … Listen and hear, O peoples of distant lands!”
Technology has aided evangelizing efforts ever since Johannes Gutenberg invented the mechanical printing press, and in the past 30 years the Vatican has added a television station and a Web site. So the Vatican’s recent launch of its own YouTube channel — a site better known for granting web immortality to dancing cats and amateur dance recitals — was not groundbreaking.
“YouTube is a contemporary means of communications, and the church has used whatever means of ommunications are available at the time,” said Monsignor Robert Wister, a church historian at Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J.
Read it all.
RNS: Age-old Vatican experiments with new technologies
The moment holds a special place in the annals of Vatican history: On the afternoon of Feb. 12, 1931, Pope Pius XI launched Vatican Radio, declaring in an intercontinental transmission: “Listen, O heavens, to that which I say; Listen, O Earth, listen to the words which come from my mouth. … Listen and hear, O peoples of distant lands!”
Technology has aided evangelizing efforts ever since Johannes Gutenberg invented the mechanical printing press, and in the past 30 years the Vatican has added a television station and a Web site. So the Vatican’s recent launch of its own YouTube channel — a site better known for granting web immortality to dancing cats and amateur dance recitals — was not groundbreaking.
“YouTube is a contemporary means of communications, and the church has used whatever means of ommunications are available at the time,” said Monsignor Robert Wister, a church historian at Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J.
Read it all.