Pop Benedict

The Pope wants to engage the pop culture. Last year, he and the Vatican launched a YouTube site. This year, Benedict focused his World Day of Communications address on digital technology.

“I would encourage all people of good will who are active in the emerging environment of digital communication to commit themselves to promoting a culture of respect, dialogue and friendship.

“Those who are active in the production and dissemination of new media content, therefore, should strive to respect the dignity and worth of the human person. If the new technologies are to serve the good of individuals and of society, all users will avoid the sharing of words and images that are degrading of human beings, that promote hatred and intolerance, that debase the goodness and intimacy of human sexuality or that exploit the weak and vulnerable.

“The new technologies have also opened the way for dialogue between people from different countries, cultures and religions. The new digital arena, the so-called cyberspace, allows them to encounter and to know each other’s traditions and values. Such encounters, if they are to be fruitful, require honest and appropriate forms of expression together with attentive and respectful listening. The dialogue must be rooted in a genuine and mutual searching for truth if it is to realize its potential to promote growth in understanding and tolerance.”

Recently, Benedict has been touted by the world press as the ‘Green Pope’ for his environmental sensitivities.

Now, some journalists have noticed that the Vatican newspaper is reviewing things like the Simpsons and the movie Avatar. What’s going on over there?

“I wanted to know more about what’s going on at L’Osservatore Romano (that’s Italian for “the Roman Observer”). Thankfully, Nick Squires of The Christian Science Monitor’s CSMonitor.com wrote an intriguing and helpful article about recent changes at the once-stodgy paper.

“In “Why is Vatican paper reviewing Avatar, the Simpsons?” Squires investigates deeper changes at the paper, which is going pop under orders from Pope Benedict XVI to reach a broader audience.

Founded in 1861 as the Vatican’s paper of record, it still has to cover weighty theological issues and the Byzantine workings of the Roman Catholic Church. But it has also expanded into the world of popular culture, passing judgment on subjects varying from the Harry Potter films and the rock band U2 to the deaths of Michael Jackson and Paul Newman…

“Instead of glorying in the unbearable lightness of pop, the Vatican provides readers with cultural analysis that goes deeper and seeks for signs of eternity in today’s cultural currents.”

The best of both worlds, so to speak.