Via dotCommonweal, the Catholic News Service reports on a high-level four-day meeting at the Vatican about new pastoral guidelines for church communications, at which the blogosphere was a topic of considerable concern:
Archbishop Celli said he didn’t think a Catholic bloggers’ “code of conduct” would accomplish much, especially when what is really needed is a reflection on what it means to communicate.
[…]“In the past, the church’s educational efforts included helping people decide what they should or should not watch. Now it must also help them decide what they should or should not produce” and put on the Internet, he said.
[…]Asked to address the council about Catholic media in North America, Father Rosica said, “On the Internet there is no accountability, no code of ethics and no responsibility for one’s words and actions.”
So many Web sites and bloggers who call themselves Catholics focus so much on negative stories and messages that increasingly “Christians are known as the people who are against everything,” he said.
Read more at the Catholic News Service.