Thou Shalt Not Text During Lent

• Author: admin
• Filed under: Tech News
• Date: Mar 6,2009

The three traditional practices of Lent are prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Today, some people also give up a vice of theirs, and thus, the Roman Catholic Church in Italy has asked its followers to give up — texting. OMG!

Lent is the 40-day period following Fat Tuesday and proceeding to Easter. The Roman Catholic church has added a technological twist, by asking that its followers forswear text messaging, social-networking Web sites, iPods, cell phones, computer games, and all sorts of tech trappings on Fridays, and more days if possible.

Generally people give up things like meat, alcohol, and the like. This is probaby going to prove far more difficult.

In a statement, the Modena diocese said:

“It’s a small way to remember the importance of concrete and not virtual relationships. It’s an instrument to remind us that our actions and lifestyles have consequences in distant countries.”

This might stem from the Pope’s recent warning to Roman Catholic youth to not substitute “virtual friendship” for real human relationships. On his YouTube site in January, Pope Benedict XVI warned in his Message for the 43rd World Day of Social Communications:

If the desire for virtual connectedness becomes obsessive, it may in fact function to isolate individuals from real social interaction while also disrupting the patterns of rest, silence and reflection that are necessary for healthy human development.