Posted: April 22

New friends along the Rhein

(Ludwigshafen, Germany) We are at the end of the second day of the first meeting of webmasters for the Jesuit web sites of Europe. As soon as I finish this blog, I can slip downstairs to the "Drachenklause" (the Dragon's Den) to enjoy another great German beer. The rich flat land of the Rhine valley seems to provide the perfect place for raising the hops and grain that centuries of experience have developped into a fine art, and one I personally appreciate.

The conversation is not bad either. We are holding the meeting in English but looking at sites in Romanian, Dutch, German, French, Slovenian, Croatian, Ukranian and Italian. Some of the webmasters are old hands with lots of experience (like Fr. Rik De Gendt who pioneered the European web site and email news service) but others are generous men who have been drafted into efforts to use the new technology for the old aim of better communication between Jesuits and their friends.

It is too soon to predict the results of the meeting, but I have a good feeling that this will prove to be an important first step. Most of the web sites began their existence as individual projects cobbled out of whatever time the webmasters could spare from other responsibilites. Most people have spoken about working late into the night on web sites. It can be a lonely job, even though the results touch a great many people. But a virtual community does not necessarily nourish the psyche like a real one. So now it is time to turn over the internet connection to someone else and head downstairs to challenge the dragon.