Pope 2.0

Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal claims that John Paul was the perfect pope for the television age, "a man of images," whereas Benedict is the perfect pope for the Internet age. She says "he is a man of the word. You can download the text of what he said, print it, ponder it." It's a nice article that reminisces about John Paul and contrasts his style with that of Benedict's and ends with some hopeful words: "Nothing is ended, something beautiful has begun, we just won't understand it for a while."

As the pope embarks on a historic visit to America, here's what I don't understand: if Benedict is Web 1.0, when will we see the Web 2.0 version? Yes, the Vatican has a website and podcasts and videos that they use to disseminate their message. But it looks to me like a one-sided conversation. A generation that seems to spend most of its time pushing buttons (cell phone, video game, iPod, you name it) needs something more interactive. How about using social media to create a dialog with the Church? Should the pope start a blog? Or heaven forbid, get on Facebook or Twitter? Why is the Vatican not using modern technology to communicate? Shouldn't the pope tweet his peeps? It's one of the most effective (and instantaneous) mass communication mediums I have seen. Seems to me that Robert Scoble, Guy Kawasaki & Gary Vaynerchuk are doing a better job of umm... evangelizing their brand than His Holiness. Of course, they're not working with material that is 2008 years old, but still... we live in difficult times where moral values are in danger of being replaced by moral relativism and the Church needs to find a way of getting its message out in a format that is relevant to the 21st Century.

Not all is lost though: according to Sister Judith Zoebelein, editorial director of the Holy See, the Vatican has recently switched to Macs. What's that you say? Don't bite into the Apple? Sorry, too late ;-)