TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, SEPT. 19, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The president of the Pontifical Council for Communications said no one should be excluded from the "banquet of culture," and the poor must be given the chance to access technology.
Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli said this during his inaugural address at the 10th continental conference being held by the Information Network of the Church in Latin America (RIIAL), an organization promoted by the Vatican communications dicastery. The conference ends Friday.
RIIAL is aiming to offer a response to "info-poverty," something it considers a new challenge in the age of communications.
Cardinal Óscar Rodríguez Maradiaga, archbishop of Tegucigalpa, illustrated how in the parishes of Honduras they have begun to create schools of information and offer the Internet, thus allowing children and young people who do not have access to these technologies to "learn how to read informationally."
After explaining that these schools will continue to develop over the next few years, he noted that the dioceses are studying the possibility of promoting the distribution of portable computers among students. The cost would be approximately $100, with sponsorship from a Harvard University project.
Archbishop Celli invited the participants not to "work day after day for the inclusion of the less favored, of the forgotten, so that society does not lose the great human wealth that these people possess and so that they are not ignored and lacking opportunities for development and growth in equal dignity with their peers."
"No one is excluded from the banquet of culture and social dialogue," the archbishop said. And he noted his concern for the lack of access to technology in Africa.
Monsignor Lucio Ruiz, an official from the Congregation for Clergy and coordinator of the team of technicians of RIIAL, said that in the last few years the network proved to be very effective in the regions of Latin America that are most isolated from new technologies.
He mentioned the example of Peru, where RIIAL transported computers by donkeys to rural areas.
ZE07091906 - 2007-09-19