Vatican warns mobile phones are bad for the soul

[Are_grits_groceries]

Father Federico Lombardi, the Pope’s spokesman, said that without a spiritual life, people risked losing their souls.

“In the age of the cell phone and the internet it is probably more difficult than before to protect silence and to nourish the interior dimension of life,” Father Lombardi told the Vatican television show Octavia Dies. “It is difficult but necessary.”

“There is an interior and spiritual dimension of life that must be guarded and nourished. If it is not, it can become barren to the point of drying up and, indeed, dying,” he added.

“Today, this is a very grave threat, and it is the most irreparable misfortune.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/3531418/Vatican-warns-mobile-phones-are-bad-for-the-soul.html

Gotta go text some people about this!

[valerief]

1. These guys are a scream! LOL! nt

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. "Octavia Dies"? Wow, I bet Octavia is happy that's what they call their show

I suppose it's one step up from 'Octavia Must Die' ... :evilgrin:

[hendo]

15. Saint Octavian

was murdered for his beliefs.

[muriel_volestrangler]

19. I suspect it's really "The Eighth Day" in Latin

It's just unfortunate that it also reads like something depressing in English.

[hendo]

20. perhaps

nt

[KittyWampus]

3. Easy to take out of context and mock, but Silence is indeed useful. Why do people feel

the need to surround themselves so completely with diversions?

Are they really that insecure they can't be alone with themselves and their thoughts?

[MineralMan]

4. In many cases, yes.

Lots of people use cell phones to keep from thinking too much. Lots of fear, anxiety, and other stuff out there. Cell phones are a poor substitute for reasoning stuff out, but that's one of the reasons people who always have a phone at their ear are doing that.

It's too bad. However, everyone who uses a cell phone doesn't fit that category, and the Vatican is not able to tell which ones are which, I'd think.

More meddling in people's lives where it's not wanted. Feh!

[GodlessBiker]

5. Staying connected to a community is a diversion?

It's one thing to say that a person should have the right to be left alone with his or her thoughts, it's completely another to say that the failure to disconnect from the community leaves one barren and spiritually dead.

You could have used the same argument for almost any invention that made it easier to stay connected with one another. Telegraphs, telephones, television, cars, trains, whatever. Even writing itself.

[KittyWampus]

8. you obviously didn't read what was actually said. Checking messages and staying informed

is one thing.

Have a perpetual influx of information from an external source is another.

[GodlessBiker]

12. Life is a "perpetual influx of information" from external sources. Our senses insist on that.

The hierarchy of the Church has always had this fascination with medieval times, as if the "simpler" life then was "better" than life now. It is a natural reaction to look back at a time when it had more power since it it finds its power weakening now. Since it is weakening, it thinks that surely it is modern life which is at fault.

[mondo joe]

28. Maybe those who like constant connection should like it, and those who don't shouldn't

like it.

Maybe... everyone could tend to their own preferences without the "morality" police butting in.

[Hokie]

6. I think I would rather listen to Father Guido Sarducci - NT

[silverweb]

7. There is a valid point to be made.

Even from the perspective of a somewhat cynical recovering Catholic, I do appreciate what he's saying about nurturing the inner life.

No matter what one's spiritual or philosophical path, there is a universal appreciation for deliberate periods of silence/contemplation/reflection, and it's a truism that constant immersion in technological busy-ness detracts from that.

There's nothing at all radical about the core truth of this statement, despite it's pontifical spin.

[valerief]

23. So I guess screaming infants are bad for the soul, too, right? I can't take the pointy heads'

ooga-booga babble.

[Bucky]

9. Where does Benedict get this stuff? Is like just throwing darts at a catalog to see what's evil now?

Plaid boxer shorts are evil! Green-shade desk lamps will send your soul to hell. Tire gauges are an abomination before God.

[MineralMan]

10. But Red Converse High Tops

are especially blessed, I hear.

[hendo]

17. So, do you not agree with him that

the culture of excess is a bad thing?

[snake in the grass]

11. My only response to his concern is to ask...

...if what the women at the Magdalene Asylums went through without any compensation, recognition, or psychological treatment after the fact was good for their souls?

[2Design]

13. as well as the vatican is bad for the soul

[bklyncowgirl]

14. Wow I finally agree with the Catholic Church on something.

I may go back to church--but then there's that whole birth control thing. Forget it.

[hendo]

16. Mobile phones are bad for a lot of reasons

More people need to understand that.

[ismnotwasm]

18. Actually, I read a lot about religion on the internet

From all sides.

Even though I'm agnostic/atheist, the internet is a rich source of information.

I would imagine people of faith, discuss faith and religion during phone conversations, blogs, chats or even text messages. I know there are a couple of on-line "temples" for instance. (The ones I know about are non-Christian)


I sure have to hear about it a lot through the various media. Maybe religious evangelicals needs to find some inner silence and get off TV? Or stop over-stimulating press releases? Declare a day of silence from the faithful? Stay out of politics?

That might help

[Ilsa]

21. Yeah well, writing stupid declarations about cell phone use

is harmful to one's soul if religious leaders don't get out there and work to help the poor, etc.

[El Fuego]

22. I think it's true in a broad sense. Some people give up their "intellectual" souls.

At this very moment, are we reading books, engaging in some kind of quiet contemplation, or are we mindlessly hanging out on the Internet reading a thread about losing our souls on the Internet?

I personnally don't read many books anymore. It's kind of sad if I think about it ... wait, gotta go, someone is IMing me.

[mondo joe]

24. Religion is bad for the soul. NT

[KittyWampus]

25. So is bigotry. NT

[mondo joe]

26. Like I said. NT

[anonymous171]

27. Way to take it out of context.

Many people on DU would probably agree with the priest's sentiment, regardless of his theological views.

[Witchy_Dem]

29. I want proof.

Show me a person whose soul has died and therefore has none.

[Deja Q]

30. He's cuckoo for cingular puffs