In the eyes of many, the Catholic community is probably one of the biggest and strongest religious factions in the world, and in case you thought that as well, you are probably right. Thus, because it is so big and diverse depending on where you might be, defining the whole Catholic community with a single statement would definitely be hard. Nonetheless, Franz-Josef Eiler provides a very accurate definition in the article “Church & Social Communication.” He argues the Catholic community can best described as a “living faith community” that “is radically different from any political, commercial, or even social association. It is Her [the community/church] foremost duty to live this ‘spiritual’ identity, as the continuation of Christ presence, in a media determined world.” (44) As you could probably tell, community in the Catholic church is essential for growth and the pursuit of faith. In fact, the desire of the Catholic community to spread the word has become so large that even the Catholic church has officially become one of the very first religious groups to openly use digital media as a tool to amplify their impact on society. As far as their relation with technology goes, Catholics have been very open and willing to adjust to this new technological era. This does not mean by any means that their usage of media has been a hundred percent ideal because in reality it has not. Nowadays, people can access on their phones just about everything with a single click or touch. Unfortunately, this ease to access information has also also given rise to the relatively easy diffusion of inadequate and anti-religious material. Thus, when competition of this sort arises in digital media, it can become difficult for religious groups to get the full attention of the masses. As McDonnell stated in the article “The Fabric Of Our Lives”, “Communication technology constantly achieves new breakthroughs, with enormous potential for good and ill.” Despite these difficulties, however, the Catholic religion has been able to thrive and maintain a stable relationship with media. Therefore, it can definitely be argued that the Catholic religion views media as a tool or a gift. Sadly, this wonderful gift can sometimes be a double edged sword because media can be very good for diffusion, yet, the ease of access to other information through it (especially through digital media) can also make it very easy for people to distract themselves and consequently grow slightly apart from the religion. As a response, Catholics use their already large community to make the religion even more popular. Nevertheless, the following image depicts very well what Catholics, especially church leaders, fear it could potentially happen to the people in the case they abuse of technology and use media erroneously.
