Most people probably wouldn’t expect to find the Dixie Chicks and Pope Benedict taking the same side of a debate, but that’s exactly what happened last week. To be sure, the moment isn’t without precedent — the country trio’s now-famous early opposition to the Iraq war echoed the Vatican’s own protest of the conflict. This time around, though, the question wasn’t a political one but something more personal, even spiritual: a longing for what the Dixie Chicks’ Natalie Maines called “a refuge in the easy silence.”
Six months after surprising Vatican observers and the faithful alike by taking up an iPad to launch an ambitious Vatican website, Benedict sought to employ his newfound tech-cred to a different end. In his customary message last week for the Catholic world’s annual Communications Day, the pontiff — whose last several missives for the occasion have urged the fold to embrace social media and integrate new technologies into the church’s life — changed tack, dedicating the written text to an “often overlooked” aspect of today’s media scene: a need for silence to balance out the daily info-overload.
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