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Computer power Pope: The Church would feel guilty before the Lord if it did not utilise the means that human skill is daily rendering more perfect These youths' computer skills are the key to the Church's dialogue tomorrow with the world, says Pope John Paul.
VATICAN CITY: Now that the Church is now firmly into the computer and information age, the pope says immediate access to information makes it possible for the Church to deepen its dialogue with the contemporary world. "In the new 'computer cialture' the Church can more readily inform the world of its beliefs and explain the reasons for its stance on any given issue or event. "It can hear more clearly the voice of public opinion and enter into
continuous discussion with the world around it, thus involving itself more immediately in the common search for solutions to humanity's many pressing problems." The Church would feel guilty before the Lord, Pope John Paul says, if it did not utilise these powerful means that human skill is daily rendering more perfect. Young people, he said, were readily adapting to the computer culture and its language and this was surely a cause for satisfaction.
They have had the advantage of growing up with the new developments and it will be their duty to employ these new instruments for a wider and more intense dialogue among all the diverse races and classes who are this "shrinking globe". "It falls to them to search out ways in which the new systems of data conservation and exchange can be used to assist in promoting greater universal justice, greater respect for human rights, a healthydevelop-
ment for all individuals and peoples, and the freedoms essential for a fully human life." However, young or old, all must rise to the challenge of new discoveries and, "on this World Communications Day, let us pray for wisdom in using the potential of the 'computer age' to serve man's transcendant and human calling and thus give glory to the Father from whom all good things come". • More on Page 11.
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Mercy pioneer remembered • Page 10