priests

From Reuters:

VATICAN CITY - For God's sake, blog! Pope Benedict told priests on Saturday, saying they must learn to use new forms of communication to spread the gospel message.

In his message for the Roman Catholic Church's World Day of Communications, the pope, who is 82 and known not to love computers or the Internet, acknowledged priests must make the most of the "rich menu of options" offered by new technology

"Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources — images, videos, animated features, blogs, Web sites — which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis."

Hat tip: The Forum

More sources for the story:

"Pope Benedict XVI urged priests over the weekend to use as many tools as possible to communicate with people, which includes the Internet and—yes—blogging. The Pope, who has been a bit of an Internet cudmudgeon, acknowledged that "the larger digital world represents a great resource for humanity" and said priests should take advantage of the tool before they become outdated."

Ars Technica: Pope: priests should blog, tweet the gospel too

CNET News: Pope asks priests to become more web savvy

The Next Web: Pope tells Priests: Start blogging

Mashable: Pope's Message to Priests: We Must Blog

ABC News: Pope to Priests: Go Forth and Blog

Read the Pope's entire speech for the World Day of Communications.

Seen recently in The Catholic Spirit, a publication from the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis:

"To their parishioners, they are known simply as “Father Jay” and “Father Bill.” But to many others, Father Jay Finelli and Father Bill Kessler are “iPadre” and the “Tech­nopriest.”

The two diocesan priests are among a growing number of Catholic clergy using podcasting and other new media to spread the message of the church...

...Father Kessler believes that podcasting and other new media technology can serve as a powerful tool for evangelization. Because of new media, “folks who otherwise wouldn’t hear the Gospel will maybe hear the Gospel; folks who don’t step into our churches at all may hear something that affects them,” he said. [Continue Reading: Priests Find Great Potential in Use of New Media – The Catholic Spirit].

Do you know of any clergy taking on the social web with such panache, and using social means to supplement their other evangelical tools? (Besides Fr. Vonhögen, of course—he has a monopoly on the field with SQPN ;-).