VATICAN City, Oct. 21, 2012— Speaking at the last of the triduum masses held earlier today at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo urged young people to maximize the use of social media and other tools of communications to evangelize.
It was the turn of the Mindanao Bishops to sponsor the last of the Triduum masses, led by Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales (who was Bishop of Malaybalay, Bukidnon prior to his appointments as Archbishop of Lipa and later, Manila) as presider and Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo, OMI of the Archdiocese of Cotabato as homilist.
In his homily, Quevedo appealed to the youth, telling them that despite being only 14 years old when Calungsod joined Padre Diego in the missions, he was already mature enough to be an evangelizer of peoples.
The youth, he said, can do this with the means of social communications, saying “(s)o often the internet is used for evil, for pornography, for scams and crimes.”
Instead, the internet should be used to share what is good, the archbishop said.
“Send biblical messages by SMS, by texting. Use twitter and blogs to share your faith, chat with others about how your faith has always been an anchor of hope in the midst of difficulties,” Quevedo said.
“Send inspirational pictures and images by email, Youtube, or Facebook. Today, the power of communications, of the internet, email, Facebook, is beyond calculation,” he furthered.
Also mentioning the many Filipino overseas workers in all parts of the world, Quevedo lauded their efforts as “faith-givers”, thanking them for their efforts to teach the children of their employers the tenets of the Christian faith.
The triduum mass at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore was the largest of the three triduum masses, filling into full capacity the big Marian basilica in the heart of the Eternal City. [Aaron James R. Veloso]
