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Bishop Urges Italians to Give Up Text-Messaging for Lent

by Warren Riddle on March 4, 2009 at 07:15 PM



Christians and Catholics traditionally observe Lent, the approximately 40-day period between Ash Wednesday and Easter, by praying frequently and fasting from certain types of food. Abstaining from food -- and vices such as drinking and smoking -- is intended to help the believer prepare for the Easter celebration of Christ's resurrection, and to also create empathy for Jesus's time spent wandering in the desert before beginning his public ministry. Monsignor Benito Cocchi, the tech-savvy bishop of Modeno in northern Italy, broadened the scope of vices this year by urging Catholic youth to take a vow of texting silence on Fridays during the current Lenten season.

Italians text on their mobile phones, or "telefoninos," an average of 50 times per month, ranking the nation second in European texting frequency behind Great Britain. Because of the high text rate, Cocchi told Italian newspaper La Repubblica that he hopes the suggested fast will prompt the text-mad Italian youth to "detox from the virtual world and get back in touch with themselves." At least he didn't get all old-school and suggest they take part in self-flagellation to atone for their texting sins.

Seriously, though. Give up texting? We could conceivably take a break from all the violent video games with rampant sex and nudity, or maybe even Facebook. But texting? No way. In fact, we're texting someone right now about how we can't stop texting. [From: News24.com]

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Tags: addiction, easter, fasting, fasting for religion, fasting for religious reasons, FastingForReligion, FastingForReligiousReasons, Lent, lenten season, LentenSeason, religion, SMS, texting

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