The Church Wants U 2 Give Up Txting 4 Lent

If you’re still deciding what to give up for Lent, the Catholic Church has a suggestion: How about Facebook? A handful of Italian dioceses have begun a "stop texting" campaign, the Times reports, urging young people to give up text messaging, Facebook, video games, and other such newfangled activities until Easter. Pope Benedict recently warned that the young are substituting “virtual friendship” for human relationships.

But the campaign isn’t just about self denial. The Archbishop of Modena says renouncing text messaging will also help Africa, since 80% of the world’s coltan, a mineral crucial to mobile phones, laptops and game consoles, comes from war-torn Congo. (More text message stories.)