A Mass celebrated by Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde and a
keynote talk by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia marked
the start of the annual Diocesan Information Systems
Conference Aug. 1, this year hosted by the Arlington Diocese
at the Westin Arlington Gateway Hotel.
With speakers, workshops and networking opportunities, the
conference’s mission is to “promote the integration of
technology with the work of the church,” and this year’s
conference focus was on information and security.
Addressing information professionals from the United States
and Canada, Bishop Loverde spoke on the “fundamental”
importance of having a personal relationship with Jesus. This
personal relationship is made evident through regular prayer,
witnessing to Jesus in daily life and evangelizing, the
bishop said.
Each person brings God’s love and the light of God’s truth to
others in many ways, including “by using new technologies
available to us,” the bishop said.
Quoting from a radio address given by Pope Benedict XVI to
Internet bloggers in April 2010, Bishop Loverde told the
gathered technology specialists: “Without fear we must set
sail on the digital sea, facing into the deep with the same
passion that has governed this ship of the church for 2,000
years. … We want to qualify ourselves by living in the
digital world with a believer’s heart, helping to give a soul
to the Internet’s incessant flow of communication.”
In his keynote speech, Scalia said faithful Catholics must
stay strong when faced with the popular belief that all
Christians are “poorly educated, easily led … and
foolish” because of their beliefs.
“(St. Paul) quite entirely expected – he assumed – that the
wise of the world would regard Christians as fools,” Scalia
said. “And from the beginning until now, that expectation has
not been disappointed.”
He encouraged those gathered to look to the faithful example
of St. Thomas More, one of the patron saints of the Arlington
Diocese, who gave everything – including his own life – for
the defense of the church.
“It has been my hope to impart to those already wise in
Christ the courage to have their wisdom regarded as
stupidity,” Scalia said. “Are we thought to be fools? No
doubt. But as St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, ‘we are
fools for Christ’s sake.'”
As for being easily led and childish, Scalia said Christ
described His followers as sheep and said they wouldn’t get
to heaven “unless we became like little children.”
Both Bishop Loverde and Scalia were presented with awards
following the morning’s events, and those present gave Scalia
a standing ovation. Les Maiman, attending the conference from
the Diocesan Fiscal Management Conference headquartered in
San Angelo, Texas, said Mass started the week off with the
right tone.
“It’s a privilege and quite appropriate as a Catholic
organization that we join first and foremost around the
Eucharist,” he said. “Then, empowered by the Eucharist, we
can go forward and try to apply our minds and our natural
talents, informed by, hopefully, being present to the
Spirit.”
Ralph De Souza, assistant comptroller for the Archdiocese of
Toronto, said Mass and the talk properly demonstrated the
conference’s information-based, yet spiritual, objectives.
“(The focus is) not just technology, but it’s technology
within the church, and how it allows us as Catholics to use
technology for our faith,” De Souza said.
