“Dear Friends, I just launched news.va Praised be our Lord Jesus Christ! With my prayers and blessings, Benedictus XVI” says the historic tweet / banner of the newly launched Vatican News website

• Twitter account: news_va_en (English)
• The video the Pope included as he launched the new site with his iPad:

Happy 60th Ordination Anniversary, Holy Father!

The Pope has great expectations for the “Youcat,” a text designed to teach young people the ABC’s of Catholicism using a language tailored to their generation.

The 300-page volume is the new and official Youth Catechism of the Catholic Church. A team has produced the volume and enlisted its translations under the guidance of Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna, Austria, who also served as the editor of the universal 1992 Catechism of the Catholic Church.

According to its American publisher Ignatius Press, the new text was produced with adolescents and young adults in mind as “an accessible, contemporary expression of the Catholic faith.” …

In the book’s preface, published in the Jan. 3 edition of the Vatican paper L’Osservatore Romano, Pope Benedict XVI himself calls it “extraordinary.”

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The Pope claimed Youcat is extraordinary “because of its content but also because of its format,” which he goes on to explain is based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

He spoke of the difficult times of the recent past, following the Second Vatican Council, when “many people no longer knew correctly what Christians should actually believe, what the Church taught, [...] and how all this could be adapted to the new cultural climate.”

Amid questions about if the Church can even teach, or if Christianity is obsolete, the Pontiff recalled, his predecessor “made an audacious decision: He decided that the bishops worldwide should write a book to answer these questions.” ”He [John Paul II] entrusted to me the task of coordinating and overseeing the work of the bishops so that a book would be born from the contributions of the bishops, a real book and not a simple juxtaposition of a multiplicity of texts,” Benedict XVI recalled. “[...] I was frightened by this task, and I must confess that I doubted that such a thing could succeed. How could it be that authors who are spread around the whole world could produce a legible book?”

Zenit.org has a translation to English of the Pope’s preface to YouCat.

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Related videos:

Fr. Robert Barron’s sermon on Weigel’s new book, Evangelization, etc.

Excerpts from The Catholicism Project:

]]> http://opusdeitoday.org/2011/02/youcat/feed/ 0 http://opusdeitoday.org/2011/01/pope-be-present-in-social-networks/ http://opusdeitoday.org/2011/01/pope-be-present-in-social-networks/#comments Sat, 29 Jan 2011 14:15:13 +0000 Aliza Racelis http://opusdeitoday.org/?p=1105 Pope’s 44th World Communications Day message “extraordinary potential of the internet”; “new communications technologies must be placed at the service of the integral good of the individual and of the whole of humanity”

On the occasion of the 45^th World Day of Social Communications, the Holy Father has shared some reflections that are motivated by a phenomenon characteristic of our age: the emergence of the internet as a network for communication. … “New horizons are now open that were until recently unimaginable; they stir our wonder at the possibilities offered by these new media and, at the same time, urgently demand a serious reflection on the significance of communication in the digital age. This is particularly evident when we are confronted with the extraordinary potential of the internet and the complexity of its uses. As with every other fruit of human ingenuity, the new communications technologies must be placed at the service of the integral good of the individual and of the whole of humanity. If used wisely, they can contribute to the satisfaction of the desire for meaning, truth and unity which remain the most profound aspirations of each human being.”

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On a Catholic News Service video posted on h2onews.org, Vatican reporters had this to say about the Pope’s recent comments:

“It’s not every day that a pope publishes a document talking about cyberspace and websites and digital profiles. But Pope Benedict and his advisers seem to understand that we’re living in a new world of online communication. Today, people increasingly share information through social network sites like Facebook. The pope said this is a good thing — it favors dialogue and the possibility of creating friendships that go beyond one’s own immediate neighborhood and culture.  And the Pope said that because the Internet has become a place where new relationships are formed, it’s a natural place for the church to be. But he insisted that there is a “Christian way” of being online — which is “honest and open and respectful of others.” That seemed to represent a challenge to some Catholic websites and blogs that have adopted a very aggressive tone. The Pope was saying here: people are paying attention to our tone, so let’s keep it civil.”

Here’s the RomeReports.com video:

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Other interesting articles here on this topic:

• Internet Tips
• CyberAwareness (slide presentation)
• 10 Facebook Tips

Last March we ran the news of the Pope’s visit to England and Scotland this September, for a State Visit and to beatify John Henry Cardinal Newman.  Please follow the official website of the Papal Visit to the U.K.

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Thursday 16 September, Edinburgh

Friday 17 September, London

Saturday 18 September, London

Sunday 19 September, Birmingham

Following his regular midday audience on Wednesday, July 7, Pope Benedict XVI left Rome for his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, where he will remain until September. … The Pope is expected to resume his weekly public audiences in August, although he will remain at Castel Gandolfo.

The Pope has a twofold “ambitious objective” this summer: “beginning a new book on the Gospels of the infancy of Jesus and giving form to the first draft of his new encyclical, the fourth of his Pontificate.” … The encyclical will likely be on “Faith.” … He asked for prayers as he retires for a time of rest, work, study and writing.

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Some references to rest and vacation found in the works of the Founder:

• Furrow, 514: I have always seen rest as time set aside from daily tasks, never as days of idleness. … Rest means recuperation: to gain strength, form ideals and make plans. In other words it means a change of occupation, so that you can come back later with a new impetus to your daily job.
• The Way, 357: ‘It seems’ — so you say — ‘as if every imaginable sin were awaiting the first idle moment. Why, idleness itself must be a sin!’ … He who pledges himself to work for Christ should never have a free moment, because to rest is not to do nothing: it is to relax in activities which demand less effort.
• Friends of God, 62: You must fight against the tendency to be too lenient with yourselves. Everyone has this difficulty. Be demanding with yourselves! … We let ourselves get carried away by false rationalisations and waste our time, whereas Satan and his allies never take a holiday. …

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For up-to-date Catholic news and info, please bookmark Catinfor.com. Also, if you’re on Facebook, please sign up for Catinfor English.

Related article:

• Humor, rest and recreation

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