#CNMC11 Keynote: Seán Patrick Lovett

Sean Patrick Lovett

This presentation was given at the 2011 Catholic New Media Conference. Below are my notes on the presentation:

Marconi & Vatican Radio

• Nobel prize winner contacted by the Pope (Pius XI) to help with Vatican communications.
• He was the inventor/innovator (Steve J.) of the early 1900s.
• He helped Pius XI set up Vatican Radio (more than 80 years old).
  • VR broadcasts in 40 different languages.
• VR continues because:
  • Courage and flexibility, no matter what!
  • Only radio station in the world that was denouncing the Nazi regime.
  • Shortwave, to medium wave, to satellite radio, to podcast, etc.
  • Collaborates with Vatican Television (youtube.com/vatican). Live information, news.va integration, etc.

Iconic Images

• BXVI using iPad to send the first Papal Tweet.
• JPII sending the first Apostolic Letter via a laptop.
• "If the Pope can do it, so can we."

Progress and Adaptation

• 1995: Vatican went online with three servers (Archangels).
• JPII was the most media-friendly Pope in history; question is still out how much he used media and how much media used him...
  • Last letter: "Rapid Development" - hails the new advances in Internet.
  • Church beginning to realize there's a brave new world (Digital Continent) being built within this world.
• "Is it good, and is it useful."
  • These are the two questions the Vatican asks when considering new forms of communication.
  • (These are the questions Rev. Lombardi asked about the iPod)
  • Does it further the Kingdom of God? Does it improve the human race?
  • Paul VI: "What use is it having a magnificent instrument if you don't use it or put it to magnificentuse?"
    • It is up to us to use these instruments magnificently.
• Vatican Bloggers Conference (2011) - good to meet...
• Document on technology use in seminaries is still under progress.
• Vatican istrying.
  • Vatican is a pyramid (one to many, monologue, slow) / Internet is a sphere (many to many, fast)
  • How can the Vatican compete with 'the social network'?
  • Vatican.va, News.va, Pope2You doesn't do what new media does: The Pope isn't going to respond...
    • It's not that we don't care, it's that we don't dare.
    • There are no 'like' options.
  • The Vatican has the identity of an organization that is part of a network, but it is not theNetwork.
    • Vatican will always choose quality over quantity, technique over technology, understanding over knowledge.
    • "Never before have we known so much and understood so little."
• The Pope
  • One of the few leaders in the world today who has so much worth listening to.
  • The Vatican tries to make sure that everything the Pope says can quickly reach the most people in the fastest way possible.
• Vatican Player
  • Go to vaticanradio.com to get the Vatican Player (7 languages).