Cardinal blames social media for changing church doctrine

Cardinal Marx: "Social media force us to listen to people"

The Catholic Church in Germany will be more open to social media. "The world of social media is not a threat but a challenge," said the chairman of the German Catholic Bishops' Conference, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, on Thursday in Hildesheim.

Digital media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube could help to bring people into a community. At the same time, however, the problems of data protection must remain in view.

"Social media force us to come down from the throne to listen to people and to be interactive", the Archbishop of Munich said at the end of the four-day Spring Plenary Assembly of Bishops. This could only be welcome for Christians, and therefore, the Catholic church wants to participate. "It's about telling personal stories, to take the other seriously and to share experiences with each other, rather than communicate a message only from the top down."

The "digital revolution" is irreversible, Cardinal Marx stressed: "We will not experience any return from the digital world, but an exponential growth there." The digital and the real world are no longer separate spheres, but belong together and are intertwined. What does not exist in the digital world, is practically non-existent.

The Bishops' Conference meeting in Hildesheim had dealt extensively with the topic of social media at a study day. The 66 members of the Episcopal Conference from 27 German dioceses met in Hildesheim starting on Monday. They had chosen the venue because the diocese of Hildesheim this year celebrates its 1,200th anniversary.

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Cathcon: the Pope is the Vicar of Christ, he has the plenitude of power in this world- power within the Church derives from him not the laity- especially not the laity in national churches who inevitably come to dominate episcopal conferences.