Catholic bishop drops some Social Media knowledge
Louisiana Bishop Ronald Herzog spoke at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops this week, telling his colleagues that the Catholic Church needs to climb aboard the social-media bandwagon.
Social media isn’t a fad, said Bishop Herzog, and priests need to start blogging and tweeting if they want to stay relevant. “If not, the church may be facing as great a challenge as that of the Protestant Reformation,” Herzog warned.
For starters, he said the church must be a voice in this frontier especially when “anyone can create a blog (and) everyone’s opinion is valid.” He said once a question or contradiction is posted in a blog, tweet or Facebook status, viewers “expect a response and something resembling a conversation.”
We can choose not to enter into that cultural mindset, but we do so at great peril to the church’s credibility and approachability,” he said. The bishop said young people in particular often use social media as their first point of reference in obtaining everything from news of the world to updates on their friend.
“The implications of that for a church which is struggling to get those same young people to enter our churches on Sunday are staggering,” he said. Or put another way: “If the church is not on their mobile device, it doesn’t exist.” The bishop also noted that even with staggering numbers of those who use new media, the church should not abandon what he termed “legacy communication outlets,” stressing that many people still rely on newspapers, radio, television and books for information.
