On Friday the Pope joined other global dignitaries such as Barack Obama and Queen Elizabeth II with YouTube Channels, as Pope Benedict XVI inaugurated the Vatican's YouTube Channel.
The Channel, at http://www.youtube.com/vaticanit, was unveiled in a press release on the Message for the 43rd World Day of Social Communications was presented. The theme this year is: "New Technologies, New Relationships: Promoting a culture of Respect, Dialogue and Friendship".
The site will be updated with one or two news pieces each day. Currently the site supports English, Spanish, German and Italian.
It should be noted that to the Vatican, Social Communications does not necessarily mean social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace; it's about media or mass media.
But the Pope did address the topic of social networking, and asked young Catholics use it to spread the word. Not only was his address released today by the Vatican, it was emailed to 100,000 young Catholics who were asked to forward it via email or by posting it on websites.
The Pope cited the "extraordinary potential" of technology to bring people together.
"They respond to a fundamental desire of people to communicate and to relate to each other. When we find ourselves drawn toward other people, when we want to know more about them and make ourselves known to them, we are responding to God's call -- a call that is imprinted in our nature as beings created in the image and likeness of God, the God of communication and communion."
At the same time he warned over possible addiction to technology and social networking sites, and also how such technology might draw people away from fact-to-face relationships:
"It would be sad if our desire to sustain and develop online friendships were to be at the cost of our availability to engage with our families, our neighbors and those we meet in the daily reality of our places of work, education and recreation.
If the desire for virtual connectedness becomes obsessive, it may in fact function to isolate individuals from real social interaction while also disrupting the patterns of rest, silence and reflection that are necessary for healthy human development."
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