CCCB Pastoral Letter on the use of Social Media

Let your speech always be gracious (Col 4:6) - A Pastoral Letter on social media from the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Social media, like any mode of communication, is to serve a human good: building bridges among people by sharing information.

“When we find ourselves drawn towards 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” (Benedict XVI, Message for World Communications Day 2009).

Families and Churches can certainly use social media to keep connected, and to help personally gather at the table.  Social media can help us make new connections and nurture old ones, but social media cannot be an end in itself.  Social media should enrich, not detract from, our encounters face-to-face, eye to eye, heart to heart.

The Canadian Catholic Bishops cite global social media usage statistics approaching 2 hours per day spent by users, amounting to nearly 7 years out of the course of an average human lifespan - exceeding the 3-4 years we might spend eating and drinking in our lives.  This should give pause, given the table fellowship treasured in the Catholic Christian Tradition. 

Catholic Christians should consider and reflect upon their use of social media, and the quality of their conduct online - how are we demonstrating our Catholic Christian Faith in our social media engagement?

Christians are to be motivated by a desire and a commitment to the truth, aligning our minds with what is real, to be true to ourselves and each other.  We are to be mindful of the inherent dignity of every person, they are deserving of the truth, for the common good of all. 

We can be curious about or questioning of ideas, but we cannot attack persons.  We should not post online any comment that we would not say face to face, with fellow Christians present (see Matthew 18:15-20). 

When we are confronted, we need to recover a certain sense of deliberateness and calm.  We cannot perpetuate outrage, in person or online.  This is more difficult with the speed and spread of social media, than in face-to-face conversation.  But we can ask social media users to slow down, consider the impacts of their words, and ask what their intentions were, to seek out the goodness and truth in a situation. 

Catholic Christians should consider and reflect upon the time they spend online, and on social media.  Even in 2011, Pope Benedict XVI wondered:
"Does the danger exist that we may be less present to those whom we encounter in our everyday life? Is there is a risk of being more distracted because our attention is fragmented and absorbed in a world “other” than the one in which we live? Do we have time to reflect critically on our choices and to foster human relationships which are truly deep and lasting? It is important always to remember that virtual contact cannot and must not take the place of direct human contact with people at every level of our lives"
(Benedict XVI, Message for World Communications Day, 2011).

Christians know that God is not content to connect with us from afar.  God took on our human flesh, to eat with us, pray with us, talk with us, lay hands on us, and even die our death. 

Social media should not take away from the time we have to talk with each other, pray, exercise, sleep, and enjoy nature and the good things of this life.   

“Throughout scripture, we see God’s desire for human freedom from every form of slavery. We can be certain that God does not want us to feel chained to our devices. We call on all users to monitor the amount of time they spend on social media and to question whether it aligns with the amount of time they want to spend. We support the practice of taking a ‘Technology Sabbath’—a full day without screen time—each week, and we encourage users to seek the help of others if they are engaging social media in a way that is detrimental to their own well-being" (CCCB Pastoral Letter on the use of social media # 26).