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What role does God actually play in social media?? That has the 12. Class of a high school in Essen investigated. And belongs to the winning groups for the competition "My Story with God" from the catholic Bonifaziuswerk.

Corinna Bott is a student at the Beatae Mariae Virginis Gymnasium in Essen, Germany. She tells our site interview about what experiences she has gained through the competition.

Interviewer: In which social media then does God play the biggest role?

Corinna Bott: That was actually relatively mixed. But Instagram was one of the places you found the most, and Twitter as well. And on Tumblr, the hashtag God was often alienated. Like "oh my god, that food was delicious" or "that rapper is my god".

Interviewer: But then does that still have to do with God? How many shares were then alienated and how many then had a relationship with God?

Bott: With Tumblr it was more alienation. There we also took a picture for a discussion group where that was really totally alienated. Maybe 10.15 percent were really about God. But on Twitter it was relatively even. There were a few chrst pages that tweeted, but also just this "Oh means God, the fries were so delicious". On Instagram was also more alienation. And on facebook, 80 percent were about God and the other 20 percent were about alienation.

Interviewer: On facebook, the users are much older than on Instagram or Twitter. Could you find out if the age of the users plays a role?

Bott: Yes, you could see on facebook, for example, that these serious pages were run by adults or communities. There were not as many young people as on the other platforms who thought about it.

Interviewer: Was there anything that surprised you a lot as a group?

Bott: We went in search of pictures, for example. Then we found a picture that we liked as a group. Then people came who looked after us and said: I wouldn’t support this page, it’s almost a cult. Watch out what you are saying to yourselves. It was clear to see how manipulative Facebook is with pictures about God or with the hashtag God.

Interviewer: Has the project perhaps also changed your private view of God??

Bott: Yes, actually. One had to occupy oneself intensively with it. And through all the articles that you have read, you have had moments now and then where you have thought: That’s right, I haven’t thought about that at all and it is actually worthwhile. Then you went home with this thought and thought about what was written on Instagram or facebook at home. Sometimes people agreed, sometimes not. It plays a bigger role when you’ve been more engaged with it.

Interviewer: It’s always said that young people don’t talk about God that much. What experiences have you had there?

Bott: Actually the same. We had a young person in our discussion group who talks a lot about God on Instagram. And then we talked to her a bit privately and she told us that she’s the only one she knows her age who would take something like that to a social medium. Of course there are also a few young, very committed people, but on facebook it is mostly the older ones who bring some content with God.

The interview was conducted by Silvia Ochlast

As a consequence of the abuse scandal, the Catholic Church establishes a new scientific "Center for the Protection of Children and Young People." An e-learning training program that can be used worldwide is to be developed in Munich.

The program is to be built over the next three years. It will be used to train church employees to prevent attacks against minors. The designated director of the center is Hubert Liebhardt, a child and adolescent psychiatrist from Ulm, Germany. Second goal is to develop a global pastoral concept against abuse in church and society.

This was announced by Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich on Monday. The project is sponsored by the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising and the Pontifical Gregorian University of the Jesuits in Rome. The institution will start its work at the beginning of 2012 at the latest, he said.

Marx said the church is facing up to its responsibility with this project. In addition to coming to terms with attacks that have occurred and caring for the victims, "a new culture of looking" must be established, he said. "The church should be a place of non-violence and love, especially for the small and the weak – indeed, a shelter," the cardinal stressed.

Sustainable learning process
Jesuit Hans Zollner, vice rector of the Gregorian University, said the goal is a sustainable learning process. He said he was very glad that the Munich archdiocese was "remarkably committed to the universal church". Thus, in a first step, 250.000 euros have been made available for the new center. E-learning could reach areas of the world "where there is Internet but no roads," he said, explaining the importance of the project.

The contact with Liebhardt from the University of Ulm came about at a working group of the Round Table in Berlin, said Zollner, who is also a member of this committee. Liebhardt reported that his institute specializes in the development of web-based assistance in the field of child protection.

The new course will be partly computer-based and partly classroom-based, the expert says. Participants could practice their sensitivity in dealing with signs of abuse, among other things, during interactive exercises. Cases re-enacted by actors are another important medium, he said. The first closed trial trainings are to start at the end of next year in cooperation with eight selected partner organizations from different countries and cultures.

The Austrian sociologist of religion and theologian Paul M. Zulehner’s long-term study concludes that young Muslim women are more open to modern role models than men are.

Integration of Islamic women is progressing much faster than among Muslim men, according to an Austrian study. However, this has a high potential for conflict, writes the Viennese theologian Paul Zulehner in his blog. "Older Muslim men with strong authoritarianism face younger women who are not authoritarian."Zulehner refers to the latest results of his long-term study on "Religion in the Life of Austrians 1970-2020"; for this there is also a representative Islam module.

Muslim women win through "Western values

According to the study, young Muslim women are much more willing to learn than men about gender roles and "Western values"; "no wonder, because they gain a lot for their womanhood," the theologian said, referring to the study published Tuesday under the title "Transformation". Overall, authoritarianism continues to decline among young Muslims in Austria; among women up to 30 years of age more than among men and also somewhat more than among Catholics of the same age.

Catholic women turn away from men’s church

Especially young Muslim women, who are not ready for authoritarian submission, would thus be "in a structural conflict with a community more made up of authoritarian-minded men," Zulehner explained. Young women in the Catholic Church would be in a comparable position. "The only reason this is less visible in terms of conflict is that young Catholic women are turning their backs on the male church, while Muslim women, on the other hand, are much more firmly bound religiously," the sociologist of religion said.

Women more modern than men of the same age

According to the study, Muslim women under 30, like Catholics, represent 43 percent "modern" gender role concepts. In both religious communities – as in the population as a whole – women are considerably more modern in their gender role models than men of the same age, Zulehner said. "The gap is widening between young women and older men."Muslims who become native in Austria would be under an enormous stress of modernization. "A tacit cultural learning is taking place, not so much in value courses or by banning headscarves, but in encounters in school classes and circles of friends."

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