• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
Paolo Ruffini, head of the Vatican Dicastery for Communication, speaks at a news briefing at the Vatican in this Oct. 8, 2019, file photo. People are connected online and are also alone, Ruffini said in an Aug. 16 address to the SIGNIS World Congress in Seoul. SIGNIS is an organization of Catholic media professionals. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Digital world leaves some ‘hyperconnected and alone,’ Vatican official says

August 16, 2022
By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service
Filed Under: Feature, Journalism, News, Vatican, World News

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Good journalism has to be creative and promote communication that focuses on dialogue, intelligence and helping build active communities, said the prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Communication.

Paolo Ruffini, the prefect, said the challenge of good journalism is to find new ways for a new kind of communication by “focusing on dialogue rather than on marketing of ideas, on intelligence as a moral category rather than on fanatical moralism of the crowd.”

“This calls for creativity, capable of reaching people where they are living, finding opportunities for listening, dialogue and encounter. We need to return to the simplicity and enthusiasm of the Acts of the Apostles,” he said in his talk Aug. 16 to members of Signis, the World Catholic Association for Communication.

The Signis World Congress was taking place online and in-person in Seoul, South Korea, Aug. 15-18, with the theme, “Peace in the Digital World.” Vatican News published excerpts of Ruffini’s talk Aug. 16.

Ruffini reminded his audience that Pope Francis commented on some of the problems with social media in his message for the 2019 World Day of Social Communications. He said, quoting the pope, how these networks are not automatically synonymous with a healthy community; too often, their identity is “based on opposition to the other, the person outside the group.”

Too often “we define ourselves starting with what divides us rather than what unites us, giving rise to suspicion and to the venting of every kind of prejudice” and “what ought to be a window on the world becomes a showcase for exhibiting personal narcissism,” he said, citing the pope.

The paradox of today, he said, is that “we are hyperconnected and also alone.” The problem arises “when there is no longer communication, but only connection.”

“We need to question ourselves, to make a personal and collective examination of conscience,” he said, as well as to seek answers to such questions like, “How is it possible to be simultaneously hyperconnected and terribly alone? What is missing from our connection that can bridge this loneliness, and that is strong enough to endure over time?”

“The only way to respond to the challenge of technology,” he said, “is not to think of it as an idol, but also not to demonize it. Not to believe that it has the task of redeeming humanity” or that it will be the source of “its perdition.”

He appealed to all Catholic communicators, Catholic journalists and men and women of goodwill working “in the difficult and great field of communication, inviting them to be “protagonists of a new humanism, embodied in active and participatory communities. We can weave a new idea of citizenship.”

Read More Vatican News

Parishes need to launch ‘revolution of care’ for the elderly, pope says

Body of Blessed Frassati, relic of Blessed Acutis will be in Rome for Jubilee

Pope celebrates Apollo 11 anniversary with peek at the heavens, call to astronaut

Pope, Palestinian president discuss humanitarian tragedy in Gaza during phone call

Pope condemns Israel’s attack against church, calls for end to ‘barbarity’

Pope: Summer marks time to balance busyness with rest, prayer, joy with loved ones

Copyright © 2022 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Carol Glatz

Click here to view all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • Prince of Peace merges with St. Francis de Sales in Harford County

  • Detroit archbishop fires theologians Ralph Martin, Eduardo Echeverría from seminary

  • Construction underway on new north addition to St. Joseph’s Nursing Home 

  • Archdiocese of Baltimore offers resources for parishes to assist migrants

  • Archbishop Wenski leads Knights on Bikes to pray rosary at Alligator Alcatraz

| Latest Local News |

Archdiocese of Baltimore offers resources for parishes to assist migrants

Third annual gun buyback scheduled for Aug. 9

Driver arrested after crashing into entrance of Esperanza Center

Construction underway on new north addition to St. Joseph’s Nursing Home 

Prince of Peace merges with St. Francis de Sales in Harford County

| Latest World News |

Jubilee of Youth chance to celebrate hope, fraternity in world at war, panel says

New York archdiocese sees hundreds of responses to ‘Called By Name’ program

Can’t afford a Catholic college? Think again. Many offer full tuition options

Detroit archbishop fires theologians Ralph Martin, Eduardo Echeverría from seminary

LA archbishop, joined by business leaders, starts fund to help families affected by ICE raids

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Jubilee of Youth chance to celebrate hope, fraternity in world at war, panel says
  • New York archdiocese sees hundreds of responses to ‘Called By Name’ program
  • Can’t afford a Catholic college? Think again. Many offer full tuition options
  • Detroit archbishop fires theologians Ralph Martin, Eduardo Echeverría from seminary
  • LA archbishop, joined by business leaders, starts fund to help families affected by ICE raids
  • FBI surveilled SSPX priest amid probe of suspected neo-Nazi’s plans for violence
  • Poland’s ‘living memorial’ to St. John Paul II marks 25 years of transforming lives
  • Our faith is not afraid of questions
  • Catholic ‘American Ninja Warrior’ fights world hunger, one obstacle at a time

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en