Catholica Australia largely came into existence because of the difficulties in conducting conversations in other places on the internet. In this commentary, Milly, shares some thoughts on internet ettiquette and responsibility…

A matter of concern...

How we relate to one another in this new frontier of cyberspace is of great concern to me and should, I believe, be of concern to all who inhabit cyberspace.

Unlike any other period in history we are able to connect across traditional national/cultural/racial/etc, boundaries in an environment uninhibited by a global governing body. For all intents and purposes, it's a 'free-for-all' and human nature is on display for the whole world to see.

It is human nature to congregate, so the advent of the discussion board should come as no surprise. We of the Catholic persuasion understand the power of the communal; our own liturgy - the 'source and summit' of our faith, and from which all else flows - is an integral aspect of Christ's teachings that have been handed down through the ages in our Catholic Tradition (and in danger of being forgotten in our age as communal participations drops off).

At the conclusion of each Mass we are sent to "Go in peace to love and serve the Lord", and, taking our lead from the Eucharistic community in how we are to approach all the other 'communities' in our daily lives; family, work, friends, clubs, discussion boards, we are called to bring the peace of Christ to our own little corners of the world. For many of us, those 'little corners' are to be found right here in cyberspace.

Sadly, 'board wars' are a common feature in cyberspace and, by nature, tend to be political…another inevitability whenever human beings are involved. These board wars tend to escalate when the world experiences the fear of war/terror/natural disasters, and general insecurity. The fact that so many of these conflicts are religious in origin makes discussion boards such as these even more hot-beds of contention.

Wherever people congregate there is bound to be conflict; it's just a fact of life. Our call as followers of Christ is to, above all, deal with conflict as peacemakers; "Go in peace…". Christ had to deal with life-and-death conflict in his own life, leaving us some pretty challenging words and example to follow, but it comes at a price. It requires of us to put aside our own ego and cultivate an understanding that in each individual we encounter Christ - and that includes those we encounter in cyberspace.

How we behave matters!!

Christ-bearers…

We don't all have to agree — our Catholic tradition has a long and illustrious history of dialogue and disagreement as we have toiled (at times attentively, and at others, despite ourselves) to discern the guidance of the Holy Spirit — and we face the same age-old challenges in this new medium. Will we learn from history or will we blindly blunder along without paying heed to our baptismal call to be Christ-bearers?

We are, at this early stage of development of the internet, laying the foundations for future generations. What will our legacy be? We have a choice that needs to be constantly renewed in each encounter - especially the most difficult and fractious encounters — about how we will proceed. Our Tradition teaches us not just to treat others with respect, but to actually love one another, including our enemies! Jesus had vast disagreements with the Pharisees and didn't refrain from telling them some harsh truths, but he did so with absolute integrity and in the spirit of 'love and truth' … leaving them to decide for themselves whether or not to heed his words. He wasn't interested in point-scoring, but of doing his Father's will.

Make no mistake: if you are reading this, then you are one of the growing number of people inhabiting cyberspace with a responsibility for how you behave in your encounters with others.

We Catholics have an even greater responsibility to bring our understanding of what it is to be the Body of Christ to bear in our encounters with the wider world; we are explicitly called to be community nourishers.

Milly

Photo Credits: The images used to create the background to the heading have been sourced from stock.xchng. The photographers who submitted the photos are: Rodolfo Clix, Sao Paulo, Brazil and Sanja Gjenero, Zagreb, Croatia.

What are your thoughts on Milly's reflection?
You can contribute to the discussion in our forum.

©2007 Amanda McKenna

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