In delivering his first Lenten message to hundreds of millions of Roman Catholics around the world, Pope Leo XIV focused on guidance that seems relevant, universal, modern and achievable.
Touching on abstention, which is one of the traditional lessons of Lent, Pope Leo said fasting is a concrete way to prepare the faithful to receive the word of God.
“Abstaining from food is an ancient ascetic practice that is essential on the path of conversion ... it teaches us to pray and act responsibly towards our neighbour.”
The Pope said as a visible sign of the inner commitment to turn away from sin and evil with the help of grace, fasting must also include other forms of self-denial aimed at helping people to acquire a more sober lifestyle.
“In this regard, I would like to invite you to a very practical and frequently unappreciated form of abstinence: that of refraining from words that offend and hurt our neighbour,” said the Pope.
“Instead, let us strive to measure our words and cultivate kindness and respect in our families, among our friends, at work, on social media, in political debates, in the media and in Christian communities,” added the pontiff.
The Pope, it would seem, understands and appreciates the role of social media in facilitating respectful communication among Catholics.
In T&T, the approach of Archbishop Jason Gordon is to call on members of his flock to cut back on the time they spend online.
“When we say we don’t have time to pray, but we have time for scrolling, what is that? If we want to make God first, we need to reclaim time from social media.”
For good or for bad, many people in T&T, and around the world, especially younger people, depend on social media to get their news and share it with their friends, family, contacts and colleagues.
Ironically, social media was most likely the means by which thousands of people were informed of the Archbishop’s comments on the need “to reclaim time from social media.”
Instead of calling on Catholics to restrict their time on social media, we wish to suggest that the Archbishop look to enhance the local church’s use of online platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, X and YouTube, to connect to the population of former churchgoers, who have become disconnected from Catholicism.
However, it must be acknowledged that the Archbishop is not alone in seeking to restrict access to social media. In fact, globally, there has been a groundswell of people calling for a ban on children under 16 accessing the platforms. That wave began in Australia, where the law restricting social media access to children under 16 was passed in November 2024 and came into effect last December.
In Los Angeles, a lawsuit began on Ash Wednesday, in which a young woman is claiming that Meta, the parent company of Facebook and WhatsApp, contributed to damaging her mental health. The young woman’s case rests on the claim that Meta deliberately designed its algorithms to include features that would make it addictive to young children. This argument, however, seems to ignore the responsibility of parents to monitor their children’s social media usage and to provide guidance to their charges, which is perhaps more important than limiting social media itself.
