Filipino bishops celebrating Easter on ‘YouTube’
Manila (AsiaNews) – In addition to churches, Filipino bishops celebrated Easter this year on YouTube. They inaugurated in fact their own YouTube video blog last week by posting Church teachings and reflections on the essence of Holy Week for the benefit of Filipinos, especially the young, around the world, thus heeding the call of the late Pope John Paul II to make the most of the Internet to spread the Gospel.
“The launching was timed for Holy Week, it being the most appropriate time to issue short catechesis on the liturgical significance of the celebrations that have been most misunderstood,” said Mgr. Pedro Quitorio III, spokesperson for the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and director of its Media Office.
The first CBCP video blogs feature Quitorio in a Holy Week series where he discusses various Easter traditions, such as the Washing of the Feet, Visits to Churches and the Veneration of the Cross.
The “CBCP’s YouTube account is intended for the young faithful today who are more inclined to listen to the latest technology rather than the age-old-sermon,” he said. “It seemed a good way to reach our target audience.”
As of April 8, Easter Sunday, the CBCP has posted nine video blogs, the latest of which is the Easter Vigil ceremony, including the homily by Manila Archbishop Gaudencio B. Cardinal Rosales.
Mgr Quitorio said that issues relating to the environment, gambling, politics, the family would be loaded on the video blog after the Holy Week.
Since its start, the video blog has become a place where many faithful both within and outside the country can interact with the prelates.
On Sunday, a Filipino living in the United States wrote: “I am so happy that you are now in YouTube. Filipinos like me find it convenient to listen to the words of God in the sanctuary of our homes. How I miss our Christian rites and traditions during the holiest of weeks [even if here] in the Midwest we tried and exerted our efforts to observe Holy Week.”
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