Yesterday the Vatican celebrated “World Communications Day.” I have to admit that I hadn’t marked it on my calendar, but I came across this article about the speech given by Pope Benedict XVI. (The speech can be found here.) Essentially, the Pope asked Catholic priests to embrace new digital technologies to reach out to a wider audience. I particularly liked this quote:

A pastoral presence in the world of digital communications, precisely because it brings us into contact with the followers of other religions, non-believers and people of every culture, requires sensitivity to those who do not believe, the disheartened and those who have a deep, unarticulated desire for enduring truth and the absolute.

The article mentions that the Pope is no slouch in maintaining on online presence. Check out the Pope2You website. The Vatican has a YouTube page, a Facebook profile, and even an iPod app.