"The cathedral of the 21st century must be built on the internet", according to the president of the Council of the Bishops' Conferences of Europe, Bishop Jean-Michel di Falco.
The CEEM President was speaking in his opening address at a symposium on how the Church can make better use of the internet and its search engines and popular social networking tools.
Some 100 delegates attended the meeting dedicated to ‘The Internet Culture and Church Communications’ which took place at the Vatican between 12-15 November.
In his address, Bishop di Falco said, “The Church must engage with new media or it risks cutting itself off from a major part of many people's lives.”
During a press conference, he described the internet “as important as the invention of the printing press", saying just as the printing press helped make the Bible available to everyone who could read, the internet can make the Gospel accessible to everyone who uses the internet.
The European bishops met with representatives from Facebook, Google, YouTube and Wikipedia, who briefed Vatican officials on contemporary media and the possibilities and dangers of the internet for the Catholic Church.
The experts brought in to brief the Church included a young Swiss hacker and an Interpol cyber-crime official in a bid to better understand cybercrime and how to defend websites from attack.
According to Bishop di Falco, the Church can better communicate its mission if it takes a more active role in its portrayal through new media. "Media often reduce the Church to the pope and a few cardinals. Even more reason to give bishops, priests and lay people a space on the internet," he said.
New media is not entirely foreign to the 82-year-old pontiff according to Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, who said Pope Benedict XVI uses the internet to send e-mails.
Speaking on Italian television, the Archbishop said the Pope is "very appreciative of new technology” and explained how he sends his own personal emails. "Obviously he's not able to answer the millions of messages that arrive in his inbox, but he certainly offers his prayers to all who write to him," the Archbishop added.
