Pope may go online to launch Vatican news portal

The Vatican, whose communications problems are no secret, is taking a leap into the world of new media with the launch next week of a news information portal that Pope Benedict XVI himself may put online with a papal click. Vatican officials said Saturday that Pope Benedict has been following the development of the portal which will for the first time aggregate information from the Vatican’s various print, online, radio and television media in a one-stop-shop for Holy See news. The portal is being launched Wednesday, the 60^th anniversary of Pope Benedict’s ordination as a priest. Monsignor Caludio Maria Celli who leads the Vatican office that developed the portal and will maintain it, said the Pope may put the site online himself with a click from the Apostolic Palace. It’s the latest effort by the Vatican to bring its evangelizing message to a greater, Internet-savvy audience. It’s also a significant step for the 84 year old Benedict, who has been bedeviled by communications woes during much of his six year papacy, much of it the fault of a large Vatican bureaucracy that doesn’t always communicate well internally. While the portal is designed mostly to provide Vatican news in an easy to use setting for the outside world, Celli said he hoped it would also improve the Vatican’s own internal communications by letting various departments know what one another are up to and help provide a more coherent message. The portal is outfitted for live streaming of papal events, audio feeds from Vatican Radio, photographs from L’Osservatore Romano and printed texts of Papal homilies, statements and speeches. It’s also designed to be social- media friendly, with Twitter feeds and Facebook links – part of the Vatican’s recent realization that it can reach a wide new audience by interacting witht eh outside world rather than merely preaching from afar.

Pope appeals for refugees, Middle East Christians

(June 24, 2011) Pope Benedict XVI on Friday appealed for those fleeing the turbulent situation in the Middle East and Northern Africa urging they be offered every possible help needed. Pope Benedict made the appeal while addressing some 80 participants in the meeting of the Reunion of Aid Agencies for the Oriental Churches, known by its Italian acronym ROACO. Created by the Vatican's Congregation for Eastern Churches in 1968, ROACO coordinates nearly 20 U.S. and European agencies and organizations that provide assistance to Eastern Catholic communities in Asia, Northern Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Addressing the group in four languages, the Pope expressed his closeness to “those who are suffering and to those who are trying desperately to escape, thereby increasing the flow of migration that often remains without hope.” The Holy Father hoped that “necessary emergency assistance will be forthcoming,” and that “every possible form of mediation will be explored, so that violence may cease and social harmony and peaceful coexistence may everywhere be restored, with respect for the rights of individuals as well as communities.” Speaking in French the Pope specifically addressed the situation of Christians in the Holy Land and the Middle East. He urged ROACO to do everything possible through their local as well as international contacts to ensure that native Christian pastors and faithful be able live in their homeland not as foreigners but as co-citizens who witness to Jesus Christ, just as the saints of the oriental Churches have done before them in the past.