The Pope goes Social!

Pope Benedict XVI uses YouTube, Facebook and iPhone apps? Who knew? Well, he is now encouraging the Catholic clergy to reach out to their congregation and beyond using blogs and social media.

The Pope was right on point in his reasoning that communication has changed from traditional to online interactions. In his message, he called on priests to harness technology to evangelize and teach. He further said, “Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of A/V resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs and websites) which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis.”

I have to hand it to the Pope for being so forward thinking. He is taking his message to the current believers, and possibly potential ones, through a medium that has become a primary source in their lives. But can religion communicate effectively and truly keep its integrity in the social media sphere?