Well. Now the Pope has decided to make a pronouncement on communications in cyberspace, I thought I’d better have a look at what he had to say, since cyberspace is what you’re reading these blogs in. I was pretty impressed: it reminded me of what someone once said to me when I asked if someone he had just met was as intelligent as everyone said. “He was so darned intelligent,” was the reply, “I didn’t understand a word he said”.
 
Well, I did understand some of what the Pope said recently; but I also found myself struggling with parts of it. I usually give myself the excuse when stumped by some abstruse internet utterance or other that it’s a young man’s game, and I can’t be expected to keep up with it at my age, certainly nothing like as well as my 13-year-old grandson, let alone my son-in law, who is a professional digital nerd. Sending emails, Googling stuff and even writing blogs (thus becoming part of what is known as the Catholic blogosphere) I always thought was pretty good for an old chap like me: now here is the Pope, a decade and a half older, saying pretty difficult stuff, but obviously understanding the whole thing perfectly well, and making impressive sounding statements about it.
 
Being digitally illiterate, I’m rather dependent on commentators who seek to explain these things. What was the Pope actually saying? Russell Shaw, on a website called OSV Daily Take, reminded us that the title of the Pope’s remarks was “Truth, Proclamation, and Authenticity of Life in the Digital Age” and then explained what it was about. “That’s a mouthful,” he opined, “but at least the focus on digital media makes sense. Digital is where the action is these days, and the emphasis on truth is a reminder that, whatever else digital media may be, they’re not a realm of fact but opinion. You say your piece, I say mine. In much of this egalitarian media world, one version of truth is as good as another”.
 
What? Is that really what the Pope was saying? “One version of truth is as good as another”? Surely not. That’s precisely what the Pope unceasingly tells us is not the case.