austraLasia
#1796
The power of networking -
maybe RIIAL has something to teach us
COCHABAMBA 25th March 2007 -- The promised report! There are several
striking things about RIIAL (Red Informatica del la Iglesia America Latina). One
is how it has taken rather high-sounding theological terms like 'communion' and
'cooperation' and turned them into a most impressive array of grass-roots
activities which are doing something about ensuring that communities of
consecrated life are enabled and empowered for evangelization inasmuch as
today's technology can do that - and this in a continent where one set of
statistics (www.labrechadigital.org) says that 80% of the population have never
made a phone call and 92% have no access to the internet. A 'red informatica'
can work even without the internet!
A second striking
factor is the support which goes all the way to the top! I mean that the
Pontifical Council for Social Communications based in Rome is right behind this
venture, and has backed it at every point over twenty years. But what one
has to understand is that the meeting being held in Cochabamba at the moment is
the first such meeting of members of consecrated life under the banner of RIIAL;
in other words it has been a diocesan-based, episcopal conference-based
enterprise until now (though with intense involvement by Religious, also
realising that half the bishops are religious anyway). With the official
involvement now of Religious, new directions are in the
offing.
I guess a third most striking feature is the
absolutely solid backing of the Salesian Family at this point - not only are
there 6 SDBs and 6 FMAs present but the head technical person is a past pupil.
Work out the maths, then, of 13 members of the Salesian Family out of 32
representatives of religious families at the Cochabamba
meeting!
What could it hold for us - I mean for EAO?
A number of things I would suggest. There are plans afoot to extend
the RIIAL model to Africa and Asia. This would occur with the backing -
and probably at the initiative of - the aforesaid Pontifical Council. And what
is 'the model'? In practical terms one might put it like this: while there is a
priest, a religious community, a catechist, a sister, a pastoral worker in need
of communication and materials to assist the work of evangelization, RIIAL (or
its Asian equivalent to be) is in construction and has not fulfilled its
aims. RIIAL offers free website hosting (250 Mb) and consultation in
website building, offers what it calls Office Eclesial, an open source Office
program heavily geared at the moment to database and 'Outlook' type email and
agenda arrangements, a digital library of almost any religious, philosophical
text you might be able to think of, and lots of grassroots assistance to help
out the isolated church worker or community. It's pretty impressive!
Efforts are made to keep all this under the umbrella of the local Religious
Conference and if possible in full view of the Episcopal Conference - also as a
way of 'educating' these bodies in appropriate attitudes and actions where
communications are concerned.
There is no reason why this
model could not find application in Asia and Oceania for that matter, drawing on
many existing initiatives. And it strikes this participant in RIIAL that
the Salesian contribution in 'our' part of the world could be as equally
impressive.
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