I happened to tune in the Today Show on NBC this morning right as Matt Lauer was interviewing the Archbishop of New York Timothy Dolan (more). Lauer asked him about how the Catholic Church is dealing with scandal and being relevant to people today. Dolan answered openly and with insight about the challenges of temptation, modernity, scandal and materialism.

A couple of years ago Archbishop Dolan visited New Mexico while he was still the Milwaukee Archbishop and spoke at a men's workshop in Rio Rancho. I was in attendance and was struck by his speaking abilities, forthrightness and sense of humor. It's good to see men like him breaking the stereotype of stuffy clergy.

The Catholic Church is dealing with the challenges of a world bubbling with technology, materialism and self-centered pursuits. Most of us face these challenges in our daily lives. How much time should be spent watching TV or pursuing pleasure? How many gadgets should we own and use? How much face time should we have with our loved ones...as opposed to Facebook?

A good thing about technology is the ability to have global communication and to discover how very much alike humans are despite our wide diversity of cultures, religions and ethnicity. I think it is good that NBC took their morning show to Rome and the Vatican to give us a greater insight into the life of the Pope and the Church. The Vatican is also embracing the use of social media to create a dialog with people and spread the Gospel message (more). Engaging others through the many communication tools can be powerful. Living our lives as Spirit-filled believers embracing the timeless message of God, love and Jesus Christ can be effective in person on through cyber-channels.