ROME -- Changes in technology have fundamentally altered the human quest for spirituality and require Catholics to reevaluate how they approach society, a Jesuit known for interviewing Pope Francis told an international communications conference Tuesday.

Saying the Internet has brought on a "radical change in perception of the religious question itself," Jesuit Fr. Antonio Spadaro said the traditional Catholic vision of spirituality "does not stand up today."

Where humans would once ask, "God, where are you?", we now think of the spiritual almost in terms of a cellular network waiting for answers to arrive on our multitudes of devices, said Spadaro. In such a system, it is no longer important for the spiritual teacher to give answers because "answers are everywhere."

It is not the answers, but the questions which are important" today, he said. We must learn to distinguish the true questions from the replies that are continually given."

Spadaro, the editor-in-chief of the Italian Jesuit magazine La Civilt Cattolica, was speaking Wednesday at a global conference hosted by SIGNIS, an international association of Catholic media professionals.

Spadaro wrote a book on cyber technology, released in 2012 titled Cyberteologia in Italian. He is best known for a wide-ranging interview with the pope that was released last September in multiple languages in 16 publications run by the Jesuit order around the world.

Because of his apparent access to the pontiff Spadaro has also been mentioned by some as a possible next director of the Vatican press office, should current director Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi retire.

Spadaro compared his vision of the new spiritual quest on Tuesday to thoughts Francis shared last November with a gathering of the leaders of male religious orders around the world.

Spadaro, who was present for that closed-door meeting, said Francis was asked why most vocations to religious life come from areas of the world that are not traditionally considered Catholic, or even Christian.

The pope responded: "I don't know," Spadaro said,

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Pope's interviewer tells Vatican congress to reevaluate spiritual quest