Commercialized? Yes. Crass? I don’t think so. Bad? No.
If you are a Catholic looking for a saint in heaven to protect you, you no longer have to carry a small “holy card.” You can get the image sent to your cellphone.
A company in Italy started offering the service on Tuesday but ran into opposition from some Catholic Church leaders who think the idea is crass and commercial.
I thoroughly believe the new technologies can help us in every way, as long as they’re approached wisely. I’m willing to listen to debate on this topic, but a reminder to live like St. Francis, St. Therese, etc. every time you open your cell phone? That can’t be bad.
Western religions have always had strong ties to communications technology. Look at how they adopted the invention of writing, for example, and even made some of it sacred. And then there was the way the invention of movable type helped bring about the Protestant Reformation. (Sorry about bringing up that one in a Catholic blog. 🙂 So the adoption of cell phone technology is just one more in the sequence.
Some day, though, we’ve got to lose the candles and take advantage of modern lighting technology. Once upon a time candles were a wonderful way to brighten up dark places in the world. The symbolism is backwards anymore.
You can get a patron saint here:
http://angelamessenger.blogspot.com/2007/11/your-patron-saint-for-2008.html
You can now get your saint here:
http://michaelgabrielraphael.blogspot.com/2008/01/your-patron-saint-for-2008.html