CBCP promotes audio Bible for smartphones

So who says you have to lug around a printed copy of the Good Book to get the Good News?

 

Catholic Church officials, noting a decreasing readership of the printed Bible, are hoping to reach out to the smartphone and tablet generation with the new "audio Bible."

 

“We know that not everyone is interested in reading; that’s why we also promote this audio Bible. This is also part of our ‘Faith comes from Hearing campaign’ because we also agreed that faith comes from hearing so we also promote this audio Bible,” said San Fernando Auxiliary Bishop Pablo David, who chairs the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines' (CBCP's) Episcopal Commission on Biblical Apostolate.

 

“People will be using a lot their cellphones, iPAD, the digital technology and we consider this a good development although for us it’s still best if you have a hard copy of the Bible,” he added.

 

David's commission has been working with the Philippine Bible Society in working on the “audio Bible,” which is now available in English, Tagalog and Cebuano.

 

It is available in CD format from the PBS, according to an article posted on the CBCP news site.

 

But the CBCP said what is new about the audio Bible is that it now comes in mp3 format so people can easily transfer it to their mobile phones, tablets, or mp3 or CD player.

 

In the works are audio Bibles in other local dialects such as Waray-Waray, Bicol, Pangasinan, Ilocano, and Hiligaynon, added David.

 

“The recording work is still ongoing for the other languages. Pretty soon we’ll make it available in all Filipino languages,” he said.

 

The CBCP cited a recent survey by the National Book Development Board (NBDB) showing a decline in the number of Filipinos into reading, from 92 percent in 2007 to 88 percent in 2012.

 

However, David said it is not cause for alarm.

 

“All we need to do is to adjust to the new culture because the learning process of the people is changing. This means we have to take advantage of the new culture of learning and that is through audio visual,” he said.

 

'e-Bible'

 

In 2006, the PBS created an e-Bible, an electronic version of the Bible, as a response to concerns that the “Scriptures will be left behind in a world that is moving so rapidly.”

 

“If we are truly to engage our present society in the Word of God, we have to do it through all positive media that reach them, and one of these is, of course, the computer,” it said.

 

The PBS also started using animé on mobile phones in 2008 to popularize the Bible, and give children and teens a needed spiritual boost. — TJD, GMA News