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Religion sent to cellphones
13/04/2002 13:09 - (SA)
Manila - The Philippine Roman Catholic church will launch a campaign to
spread the "Good News" using cell phone text-messaging technology
that is very popular in this Southeast Asian nation, especially
among youths.
In a pastoral letter to be read in churches on Sunday, Manila
Archbishop Cardinal Jaime Sin said the campaign - called
"catextism" in a play on the term catechism - will feature
spiritual messages, prayers and random passages from the Bible sent
as text messages by cell phone.
"We are now a 'text generation', " Sin wrote. "And so the Church
seeks to avail of this potential tool for evangelization and
spiritual nourishment."
He said the campaign was in response to a recent challenge by
Pope John Paul II "to make room for Christ in mass communications".
Key in 'amen'
Ramon Isberto, spokesman for mobile phone operator Smart
Communications, said he was told by church authorities that the
service is the first in the Catholic world and was brought into
operation with help from the Jesuit Communication Center in Dublin,
Ireland.
To access the service, cell phone users are asked to key in the
word "amen" and dial a number. A message immediately comes back
asking the user to register a nickname. Once this is done, another
message appears offering users the choice of receiving a prayer or
a religious reflection.
Text messaging is a feature now widely available on digital cell
phones - especially those that use GSM technology, the dominant cell
phone standard in Asia and Europe, where the version used is called
Short Message Service, or SMS.
Isberto said more than 100 million text messages are generated
in the Philippines daily, about 10-15% of global SMS
traffic. - Sapa-AP
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