The Church, the Internet, and the Educational programs

The modern techniques of communication and information media became a part of the actual culture. For this reason, the church as being “the teacher”, should not neglect the use of these techniques in order to benefit from them to spread the new and ever newly “Gospel” by using the language of each generation; leading the way for man advancement to reach the figure that he is asked to realize. So what is the choice of the Lebanese Catholic Church in the Internet field, especially in the field of connecting the parishes, schools and universities with each other, and offering educational and teaching programs to all the stages, which are beneficial to all?

According to the desire of His Holiness the Pope in the field of information and social communication – Apostolic Guidance No. 111 “A New Hope for Lebanon”-, and in application to the recommendation 46 issued by the Special Council of the Synod for the sake of Lebanon; because Lebanon” is more than a country”, and because it is “ a message”; OPUSLIBANI organization under the supervision of the secretariat-general of the Assembly of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops in Lebanon, and before the visitation of his Holiness Pope John II to Lebanon in the 10th of May 1997 – had foundeda special Internet site for the Catholic Church in Lebanon denominated by the organization’s name.

 

The aim:

The church benefits from its available modern techniques and makes use of the Internet network as a communication and Information media to determine an obvious figure of the Catholic Church in Lebanon and the Orient; to show the pluralistic and rich traditions of the Oriental Church; to transmit the voice of the church – pastors and believers in Lebanon – to the different countries of the Lebanese all over the world; to set up spiritual, human and cultural relationships via Electronic mail and chatting ; to explore the recent developments, events and newsvia News Group. Many researchers can also enter to the network’s “golden record” in order to register his impressions and suggestions.

 

The Content:

This site contains numerous pages in three languages: Arabic, French, and English, and it also includes another sites.

 

First: We can find a lot of information on its pages about: Council of Catholic Patriarchs of the Orient, Assembly of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops in Lebanon, the Middle East Council of Churches, and all the Episcopal Conferences. Moreover, we find special pages about both the Patriarchies and the Catholic Churches: Maronite, Roman Catholics, Armenians, Copts, Syriacs, Chaldeans, and Latins. This site includes also more specific pages about Lebanon; it contains everything related to the “Synod for the sake of Lebanon” and the “Apostolic Guidance” and the “ History of Lebanon illustrated by pictures”.

There is also a page entitled “Lebanon- a holy land”, covers all the activities, programs and ceremonies for the jubilee Year 2000.

In addition, we can find on the pages of “OPUSLIBANI” some information about: the Apostolic Movements in Lebanon, the seminaries, the orders Catholic schools, universities, and the hospitals related and supervised by the church.

Also, we can find the calendar of cultural and religious ceremonies in Lebanon from 1997 till 2001. We can access this page to get information about the place and timing of the event.

Furthermore, a special station named by “The Event of the Month” reinforces this site, where the reader can find the details about the conferences and huge religious ceremonies or that related to the church.

 

Second: The first page of OPUSLIBANI embodies several sites, as:

 

The Future Plans:

Cartage program and other programs.

This organization founded a cultural and scientific program called “Cartage” on the Internet. Its aim is to spread and generalize the education and the culture, and it is at the disposal of the teachers, students and the parents in schools, universities, and the educational and cultural centers and organizations.

This program contains much information in accordance to the new educational programs: more than 75,000 information, 2000 book, 1000 pieces of music, 500 documentary films, and others.

This network is protected from all what is against the ethics and contradict the religious celestial teaching. The organization has been recently licensed by the Council of ministers - decree No. 1449. A lot of schools, universities and students’ parents are subscribed in this program.

 

OPUSLIBANI seeks to develop this program to reach a network connecting the schools with each other. That permits the parents to enter to the school programs via this network, where they can see all their children’s duties, their grades, the learning hours, and to send messages to the teachers and the administration whom can also send messages to the parents. Also, this program will contain audiovisual lessons in different courses.

                                                 

The addresses of the networks in this organization’s location:

Address: Saint John center - Jounieh - Lebanon 

Tel. +961 (9) 642790/1 fax +961 (9) 912250 

http:// www.opuslibani.org.lb

 

In charge Fr. Khalil Alwan, m.l. 
Secretary General of the Assembly of Patriarchs and Catholic and Bishops in Lebanon 
Tel. +961 (3) 871118  Tel & Fax: +961 (9) 220923
E-Mail: alwan@opuslibani.org.lb

 

Fr. Elie Madi, m.l. 
Assistant Secretary for public relations of the Assembly of Patriarchs and Catholic Bishops in Lebanon
Tel. +961 (3) 636608 Tel & Fax: +961 (9) 220923
E-Mail:madi@opuslibani.org.lb