Scottish Catholic Observer

Monks, priests, nuns and lay Catholics were welcomed to the Vatican yesterday after 150 bloggers from around the world were invited to its first-ever blogging summit.

A senior curia official told those gathered of the Holy See’s desire to establish a genuine relationship with the digital world.

“We’re here for a dialogue, a dialogue that from our side means the conviction of the concrete, important and unique role of your presence in the world of communication,” Mgr Claudio Maria Celli, head of the Vatican’s social communication’s office, told the bloggers.

The Vatican has been seeking to engage more with the online world recently.  head of theFor the Beatification of Pope John Paul II this weekend, the Vatican created a special Facebook page, Twitter account, ran clips of his 27-year pontificate on its YouTube channel and let the Faithful send electronic postcards to one another about what they were experiencing via its youth-based news portal.

Fr Roderick Vonhogen, a Dutch blogger, said blogging for Catholic priests is an effective way to spread the Faith to people who aren’t necessarily looking for it. He says it can be even better than sitting in his remote parish celebrating Mass for 200 because he can reach 40,000 people around the world.

“If we just do what we do in our churches, behind closed doors, we will have empty buildings by the end of the day,” he said.

Mgr Paul Tighe, second in command in the Vatican’s social communications office, said the idea of bringing together a cross-section of bloggers had been kicking around the Vatican for some time, but that the occasion of John Paul’s beatification last Sunday seemed like the logical time to do it since many bloggers were going to be in Rome already.

“It’s very much a first step, to meet with, to hear their concerns, to try to talk about some of the things we’re doing and see if people want to take it further, or how they think it might be helpful to take the discussion further,” Mgr Tighe said.

He stressed that the Vatican wasn’t interested in trying to organise or police the Catholic blogosphere.

“I think we recognise that even if it were our agenda, it would be a very futile exercise,”  Mgr Tighe said.

The conference drew 750 requests from would-be participants from around the world. Mgr Tighe said only 150 were accepted because of space constraints, and that they were chosen by language groups and then by lottery.