Catholic Bishops Call for Abandonment of Technology During Lent

Some Roman Catholic bishops in Italy have called for Catholics to give up technology, notably text messaging and Twitter, for Lent. Possible sacrifices they also considered include “all fun” and “things people like.”

These bishops apparently issued a blanket suggestion against all technology, including iPods, Facebook, television, text messaging, and Twitter. While I understand the impulse to ban the latter, the bishops stated that they hoped a ban on text messaging would “draw attention to the conflict in Congo, which it says is fuelled by a struggle over mines that supply minerals used to make cellphones.” That’s sort of reasonable and at the same time also totally unreasonable, in that nobody is going to make that connection unless their phones are inscribed with “MADE WITH THE BLOOD OF CONGOLESE MINERS” on the front.

The Pope, apparently, is still out there YouTubing, which kind of takes the sting out of the bishops’ words. Is anybody out there giving up any sort of technology for lent? And if not, may I suggest Twitter? [LA Times]