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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