[ via Seth Godin ]

A recent story on the BBC reports that mobile phone users in the UK can now sign up to receive a thought of the day from the Pope :

The thoughts sent to subscribers every day will be picked from the messages, speeches and homilies delivered by the Pope. Messages sent to subscribers will include guidance and prayers as well as the Pontiff’s thoughts on issues of the day. The Vatican said that the service was meant for everyone, not just those of the Catholic faith.

The text message service is not the first time that the Vatican has turned to technology to help it get its message across. The Pope has said that a place for Christ needs to be claimed in new media and the Vatican has its own web domain .va.

Other religions have used phones to help their congregations practice their faith. Some Muslim churches issue the call to prayer via text message and one German church broadcasts an entire service via SMS.

Closer home, I am also told that the famous Siddhivinayak temple (Bombay) now offers online ceremonies for its devotees. Of course, in Hindu tradition, true devotion cannot be expressed without effort or sacrifice of some kind. So such avenues may not be utilised by the majority in India.

But I am happy to witness this new-found faith in Technology and can only wonder what developments it will lead to. In the meanwhile, the Vatican is busy trying out a thought-of-the-day service in Italy that swaps multimedia messages using pictures and sound for plain text !