Catholic perception of community has changed over time as the ability to form a community has become more fluid. This fluidity has been facilitated by the incorporation of media into the church. The study of religious communities requires examining membership and engagement (Campbell, religious communication, 2019). Acceptance as a member into the community of Catholicism, even at the level of the Vatican, requires following the order of the catholic sacraments. The sacraments are the visual acts of “baptism, confirmation, the mass, reconciliation, anointing of the sick, holy orders, and matrimony” that “demonstrated the operation of God’s grace in the here and now” (Allen, 2014, p. 41-42). These events are what construct membership and are followed up by a commitment to community, as in many other religions. When an impending member receives the sacraments, they are participating in “events inviting [them] to truly experience…grace” (Pitt, 2018, p. 49). Along with these sacraments, members are expected to be active participants in their church as a part of the community. The ability to participate in the church community has changed drastically since the implementation of media, specifically the internet (net) and television media. On World Day of Social Communication 2019, Lydia O’Kane reported that “Pope Francis points out… that from an anthropological perspective ‘the metaphor of the net recalls… [a] meaningful image: the community” (2019, p. 2). The net and television are making it possible for members of the catholic church to engage in the catholic community from a distance, expanding the proxemics of the community and making it less direct. The first picture seen below was taken in the Florence Cathedral (The Duomo). This image reflects the historical understanding of Catholic community, as it is the alter of the cathedral, where individuals had to physically go to attend mass and be a part of the community. The next image is of on individual watching mass on their computer, from their bed. This represents the contemporary manifestations of the catholic community, as it shows how members are now able to participate in the community from a distance. These two images do an excellent job of summarizing how media has affected the community of the catholic church, in that individuals no longer have to be present to be active in the community.
References
Allen, J. L. (2014). The catholic church: What everyone needs to know (updated ed.) New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Retrieved from https://books.google.it/books?hl=en&lr=&id=lBHNAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=what+are+catholic+sacraments&ots=HHjb6XUMTa&sig=NJuQS8ERViX8SPUazhEx_RJed3c&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=what%20are%20catholic%20sacraments&f=false
Campbell, H. 2019. Religious Communication [PowerPoint]. Communication, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX.
O’Kane, L. (2019). Pope highlights pros and cons of internet and social media use. Vatican News. Retrieved from https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-01/pope-highlights-pros-and-cons-of-internet-and-social-media-use.html
Pitt, D.A. (2018). Where do the sacraments come from? U.S. Catholic 83(10), 49.. retrieved from http://proxy.library.tamu.edu.srv-proxy1.library.tamu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rlh&AN=131413600&site=ehost-live
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