Pope’s online evangelist in town

Msgr. Paul Tighe, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. AFP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The papal social media manager is now in Manila to echo the Vatican’s call to bring Christ into the digital world.

Msgr. Paul Tighe, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, will be the keynote speaker at the 2nd Catholic Social Media Summit which will be held from Nov. 23 to 24 at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Manila.

Organized by YouthPinoy, the conference aims to promote online evangelization, using the Internet and social media as a pulpit to proclaim the Gospel.

Fr. Francis Lucas of the Catholic Media Network said that the summit which is already in its second year is very important especially now that the Church is “entering a digital world where we should be involved and present.”

Tighe, who led the team that coordinated the creation of the Papal Twitter account, @Pontifex, urged netizens to use the new media in promulgating the social action and social justice that the Catholic Church promotes.

“I think the great thing that we should do with the social media is to show the people what is happening. We need to show in social media that the Church is active in serving the poor, active in teaching, that the Church is also active in hospitals and in healthcare,” he said at a press briefing on Wednesday.

Tighe acknowledged the negative side of social media, “the abuses, the bullying and the harassment. The thing is, let us change that by being present online in a positive way, supportive of dialogue that recognizes the goodness of other human beings,” he said.

Tighe cited how social media was used by people around the globe to show their solidarity, sympathy and support for the Filipinos, especially for the victims of Supertyphoon “Yolanda.”

He said the Vatican “joins the Philippines and the Filipino people in solidarity over the recent calamities.”—With Maricar B. Brizuela