"With the advent of computer telecommunications and what are known as computer participation systems, the Church is offered further means for fulfilling her mission. Methods of facilitating communication and dialogue among her own members can strengthen the bonds of unity between them. Immediate access to information makes it possible for her to deepen her dialogue with the contemporary world.
"In the new 'computer culture' the Church can more readily inform the world of her beliefs and explain the reasons for her stance on any given issue or event.
"She can hear more clearly the voice of public opinion and enter into continuous discussion with the world around her, thus involving herself more immediately in the common search for solutions to humanity's many pressing problems (cf. Communion et Progressio, 114ff.).
"It is clear that the Church must also avail herself of the new resources provided by human exploration in computer and satellite technology for her ever pressing task of evangelization. Her most vital and urgent message has to do with knowledge of Christ and the way of salvation which He offers. This is something she must put before the people of every age, inviting them to embrace the Gospel out of love, ever mindful that 'truth cannot impose itself except by virtue of its own truth, which wins over the mind with both gentleness and power' (Dignitatis Humanae, 1). ...
"Surely we must be grateful for the new technology which enables us to store information in vast man-made artificial memories, thus providing wide and instant access to the knowledge which is our human heritage, to the Church's teaching and tradition, the words of Sacred Scripture, the counsels of the great masters of spirituality, the history and traditions of the local churches, of religious orders and lay institutes, and to the ideas and experiences of initiators and innovators whose insights bear constant witness to the faithful presence in our midst of a loving Father who brings out of His treasure new things and old (cf. Mt 13:52)."
-- Pope John Paul II, May 27, 1989, Church Must Learn to Cope with Computer Culture