MADISON — In late June, Bishop Hying waded back into the Twitterverse, and started tweeting brief personal messages and reflections for the first time since coming to Madison last year.
His messages are clearly designed to inspire and invite us all into closer relationship with Christ, and therefore with one another.
So, here in print, and online, is your invitation to “follow” Bishop Hying on social media (@bishophying on both Twitter and Facebook) and invite your friends, children, and grandchildren to do the same.Why tweet?
The Second Vatican Council teaches that it is “an inherent right of the Church to have at its disposal and to employ [every available medium of social communication] insofar as they are necessary or useful for the instruction of Christians and all its efforts for the welfare of souls.”
That is why bishops, priests, deacons, Religious, and faithful lay Catholics engage in social media of every kind.
The bishop’s frequent videos are distributed through numerous media online, as well as through Flocknote.
We are called — from print, to conversations over coffee, from sacred artwork, to television and movies, to radio, websites, and the growing and varied social media platforms — to evangelize, catechize, and inspire others.
We are called to use it all, because the audience is different for each. Just as God loves every individual to the end of the earth the same, we are called to share His with them wherever they are, even if only online.
Convert the culture and the media
We know that social media is too often used to divide, promote violence or vice, to hurt and humiliate, or cause serious scandal.
Let’s not only “follow” the bishop online as he inspires and invites us, but let’s follow his lead in doing our small part to use social media for good — for the great good there is — in inviting others to know, love, and serve God.
If we were all to inject more God, more good, more civility, and more love into the world — even through social media — we can transform these media and the world as well.
“Thus, as was the case with ancient works of art, the name of the Lord may be glorified by these new discoveries in accordance with those words of the Apostle: ‘Jesus Christ, yesterday and today, and the same forever.’” (Inter Mirifica)