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Spiritan Missionary News
Spiritans.com
by Paul McAuley, CSSp
Toronto
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Wired, cyberspace, upload, download, online, offline, e-mail, e-commerce, virus crash. Every day we hear these words whether we are at work, at home, out for the evening or waiting in line at the supermarket. The Internet is by now a pervasive fact of life. For some this brave new world of cybertech is an irritant, for others a mystery, for a few others an addiction, but for the majority of users it is a wonderful tool for finding and sharing information and for keeping in touch.
It has been argued that not since the invention of the printing press in 1450 by Johann Gutenberg, has there been such a revolution in communications technology. The development of printing and mass publication produced unforeseen cultural and historical shifts. The Protestant Reformation and the Renaissance in Europe were certainly a byproduct of Gutenberg's machine.
Here we are over five hundred years later in the midst of another communications revolution. Just as Gutenberg could not envisage the repercussions of his invention, I believe we are only at the beginning of great change. New technologies are developing so rapidly, often without a tremendous amount of reflection on the real needs and appropriateness of such. We must also remember that the majority of the human population is not yet "online" and is in danger of being left off to the side of the information autobahn.
In our Spiritan Provincial Chapter of 1997, it was proposed that we Spiritans should not find ourselves left behind in such communications developments. Two months later, the Spiritans of TransCanada had a modest little website, and we have been online ever since. Recently, it acquired a new look with the modification of "frames", which should make for easier navigation around the site and also allow for a more frequent updating of content. Like most websites, spiritans.com is still primarily an informational site presenting print material on an electronic screen such as the two new pages that have been added to the site, one for our Vocations office, and one for our Justice, Peace and Reconciliation office. Who knows what the future will bring for the Spiritan website...a chat room, discussion board, Mass online?
We will continue to make the website a friendly place to drop in and visit. Come and see us at:
www.spiritans.com
Illustration by David Wysotski
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