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November 5, 1995 Bishop
Urges Evangelization in Cyberspace Bishop Myers was one of three U.S. prelates to address the Fifth International Congress on Reconciliation. The Oct. 27-28 assembly drew more than 1,000 participants from throughout the Americas to focus on new evangelization as the third millennium approaches. In each generation, said the bishop, the good news of Christ and the Church have to be presented in such a way that it reaches the popular imagination and influences public opinion. As the information era unfolds, Bishop Myers suggested, that will involve designing and developing catechetical materials for cyberspace. These materials should be of high quality. . . attractive, interesting, moving, and speak to the hopes, aspirations and trials of people today. The theme of Bishop Myers talk was Secularism and the Electronic Culture. Like the dozens or so other conference presentations, it was delivered in Spanish. The electronic culture and the oncoming information era offer great challenges and opportunities for the spread of the Gospel and for human development, Bishop Myers told the assembly. Among the greatest challenges for the Church, he said, is to counter the promotion of a secularist ideology on a mass level. Secularism strives to separate God from public life. Focusing on television, Bishop Myers noted that in general, religion is systematically excluded from the daily fare on television. More and more the television culture exalts lifestyles very much at odds with human nature, to say nothing of the ideals of the Gospel. Bishop Myers stressed the need for the Church to oppose secularist and materialist ideologies as new, interactive communication technologies evolve such as the Internet and the World Wide Web. The information era is bringing the modern world, with all its good and all its evil. . . directly into the homes of countless families through personal computers. In the face of challenges posed by the electronic age, Bishop Myers recalled the words of Pope John Paul II to the United Nations in early October: We must not be afraid of the future. And he called the laity to a special role in what he called the evangelization of the electronic media. It is not a matter of the Church dominating the electronic culture, Bishop Myers said, but of the Church serving it by transforming it. This is above all the task of the lay faithful. He called on pastors to awaken among the laity their absolute essential role in this evangelization of culture. He continued by adding, Our task as churchmen is to prepare and strengthen the laity to fight the ethos of secularism which fosters a compartmentalized existence, relegating God to a small corner of their life. Bishop Myers reminded the group that, despite technological efforts, the message of evangelization is the same. Quoting Pope John Paul II, he said, Salvation lies not in clever human words or schemes, but in the cross and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Reprinted
from the November 5, 1995, edition of The Catholic Post, official
newspaper of the Catholic Diocese of Peoria.
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