To what extent can the new digital technologies be assumed as "means" for understanding and improving life today? Can they really contribute to improving Christian life and even to a better understanding of the faith? These are the issues raised by Benedict XVI in his speech to the committee Pontifical Council for Social Communications (28-II-2011). It is a deepening of his message for the workshop World Communications Day, which will be celebrated on June 5, 2011.


"A new way of learning and thinking": the language of images and symbols.

The starting hypothesis is that the new technologies are a magnificent opportunity for Christians. This depends on a first look at this reality, to discover in it profoundly human and positive values: "A new way of learning and thinking is taking place, with unprecedented opportunities to establish relationships and build communion".

More concretely it is underlined that human language is not only a coating of concepts with words: "Language is not a simple interchangeable coating and provisional of concepts, but it is the living and pulsating context in which the thoughts, concerns and projects of men are born into consciousness and are embodied in gestures, symbols and words". The Pope beautifully deduces that "man not only 'uses', but in a certain sense 'inhabits' language". 

Let us note the interest of all this. Indeed, human language is not only made of concepts, but is also interwoven with the experiences, feelings and memories evoked by symbols. And the symbol is not a more imperfect way of knowing but a more perfect one, even if it is more difficult to explain. Thus, by their usual resource to images and symbols, new technologies affect the contents of our thinking, as well as the choices and decisions that make up our present and future life.

It is also worth remembering how one often hears complaints that the culture of the image supposedly hinders more speculative developments, hinders reading habits, etc. And this will have to be taken into account in the Education. But Benedict XVI warns us to grasp the positive values contained in the culture of the image, on which these new technologies are based: "The new languages that are developed in the Digital Communication determine, on the other hand, a more intuitive and emotive than analytical capacity". And precisely in this way "they lead to a different logical organization of thought and of the relationship with reality, often privileging the image and hypertextual connections". To put it briefly: by a path other than the strictly conceptual, this language can promote a deeper, more complete understanding of people and things.

This explains, according to the text, that in participatory networks people can be much more committed to themselves, can share their vision of the world and thus become "witnesses" of what gives meaning to their existence. All this does not happen without risks ( speech lists some of them: loss of interiority, superficiality in relationships, flight towards emotionality, primacy of the most convincing opinions over the desire for truth), as "a consequence of an incapacity to live fully and authentically the meaning of innovations". For this very reason, "it is urgent to reflect on the languages developed by the new technologies".


An opportunity to live and understand the faith more deeply

To this purpose it is recalled how God has statement his wonders precisely in language and in the real experience of men, "according to the culture proper to each epoch"(Gaudium et spes, 58), until the full manifestation of himself in Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word. It is added that faith is called to vivify the culture of each age, and at the same time to allow itself to be challenged by it, in order to better grasp and express God's interventions in the world.

Thus it is not only a matter of expressing the Gospel message in the language of today, but the new culture can also enrich Christian life and even the very understanding of the faith (theology). Therefore, from this arises "the commitment to help those who have responsibility in the Church to be able to understand, interpret and speak the 'new language' of the average in pastoral function (cf. Instruction Aetatis novae, 22-II-1992, n. 2), in dialogue with the contemporary world, asking themselves: what challenges does the so-called 'digital thought' pose to faith and theology? What questions and requirements?"

Benedict XVI continues, "Digital culture poses new challenges to our ability to speak and listen to a symbolic language that speaks of transcendence."

(Let us note that this is not a radical novelty, since ancient cultures and popular culture itself have continually placed themselves in a perspective that is not academic but narrative and affective, more vital and existential, in order to foster communication and social relations. This is much clearer in Hispanic-Latin culture than in Anglo-Saxon culture).

In fact, says the Pope, "Jesus himself in the advertisement of the Kingdom knew how to use elements of the culture and the environment of his time: the flock, the fields, the banquet, the seeds, etc. Today we are called to discover, also in the digital culture, symbols and metaphors that are meaningful to people, which can be of financial aid when speaking of the Kingdom of God to contemporary man".


A responsibility of Christians in the day to day of communication

The text ends by appealing to the responsibility of believers to humanize today's communication, in all its aspects, and in spite of the difficulties. "The contribution of believers can then be of financial aid for the world of the media itself, opening horizons of meaning and value that digital culture alone is not able to glimpse and represent". At final, it is a matter of continuing to live the dynamic of the Gospel, which is a dynamic of "incarnation": taking on all that is positive in the lives of people and cultural developments, in order to "enliven and elevate them with the wisdom and truth of Christ".