What happens online does not stay online. The borders between the digital world and
the flesh and blood world have become rather porous. The ways we think, speak,
and act in the digital environment bears meaning for how we think, speak, and
act offline, and vice versa, at least to some extent. When we search around in
media for Catholic voices, or for how Catholics engage with each other in the
digital space, what we find is conduct that is often far from charitable, and
content that leads more readily to polarization than communion. What is the
impact, then, of digital media and the ways of being that are fashioned in
digital space on concrete Catholic communities, like the parish?
My guest today is paying close attention to these phenomena and working
to help develop ways and habits of communicating that are more conducive to the
Gospel. Deacon Matthew Kuna is a transitional deacon in the Diocese of
Allentown, who is finishing up his study and formation for the priesthood at
St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia. He is also a member of the
inaugural cohort in the McGrath Institute for Church Life’s Church
Communications Ecology Program, where pastors, lay ministers, and educators are
called to respond to the myriad pastoral challenges raised by life in the
digital age. He joins me to talk about the ways in which our environments shape
us––especially the digital environment––and how we might create better
conditions for disciples to be formed for healthy, responsible, and discerning
engagement in our increasingly digital world.
