If you thought you’d logged on to the wrong site, think again.
We’re pleased this morning to unveil a new look for our site — brighter, cleaner, easier to navigate. As you’ve undoubtedly noticed by now, the enhancements also include freshening up the look of our blog, One-to-One.
Among other things, the design incorporates on the home page a new element that links directly to our video archive. It also features a link to ONE, our award-winning magazine and, of course, the popular blog you’re reading right now.
Pope Francis spoke of the power and importance of social media in his message for World Communications Day earlier this year:
Emails, text messages, social networks and chats can also be fully human forms of communication. It is not technology which determines whether or not communication is authentic, but rather the human heart and our capacity to use wisely the means at our disposal… I pray that this Jubilee Year, lived in mercy, “may open us to even more fervent dialogue so that we might know and understand one another better; and that it may eliminate every form of closed-mindedness and disrespect, and drive out every form of violence and discrimination” (Misericordiae Vultus, 23). The internet can help us to be better citizens. Access to digital networks entails a responsibility for our neighbor whom we do not see but who is nonetheless real and has a dignity which must be respected. The internet can be used wisely to build a society which is healthy and open to sharing.
Communication, wherever and however it takes place, has opened up broader horizons for many people. This is a gift of God which involves a great responsibility. I like to refer to this power of communication as “closeness.” The encounter between communication and mercy will be fruitful to the degree that it generates a closeness which cares, comforts, heals, accompanies and celebrates. In a broken, fragmented and polarized world, to communicate with mercy means to help create a healthy, free and fraternal closeness between the children of God and all our brothers and sisters in the one human family.
That captures perfectly what we at CNEWA have embraced as a cornerstone of our mission, the “fraternal closeness between the children of God and all our brothers and sisters in the one human family.” That idea gave birth to the very name of our magazine, ONE — and, in turn, to the blog you are reading right now. We hope our new design serves to make communication easier and helps foster the closeness and communion of which the Holy Father speaks.
So, take a few moments and look around. We’ll continue to make enhancements and improvements in the months ahead, so come back and visit often!