Pope Benedict XIV has some words about social networking, asking young Catholics to use sites like Facebook, along with blogs and Internet video posts to share the faith, but to avoid trivializing friendship by not forming real, face-to-face relationships. Ill Papa sent out 100,000 emails and will post his message about 2009 World Communications Day, May 234 on YouTube shortly.

While celebrating the new computer technologies which can help people meet their needs to connect with others and share the search companionship, truth, and beauty Pope Benedict XIV also warned against:

the sharing of words and images that are degrading of human beings, that promote hatred and intolerance, that debase the goodness and intimacy of human sexuality or that exploit the weak and vulnerable…If the desire for virtual connectedness becomes obsessive, it may in fact function to isolate individuals from real social interaction while also disrupting the patterns of rest, silence and reflection that are necessary for healthy human development…

But the Pope seems very understanding of all forms online communication, explaining that all things are of God:

When we find ourselves drawn toward other people, when we want to know more about them and make ourselves known to them, we are responding to God’s call — a call that is imprinted in our nature as beings created in the image and likeness of God, the God of communication and communion.

So, I’m confused–how does he really feel about goatse and rickroll?