Newspaper Articles, Saint Bron's Web Page

Following in the steps of Jesus, Father Pat Umberger goes where the people are, ministering to thousands in cyber-space.

What started as a practical way in 1996 for Father Pat to relay basic information at St. Bronislava Parish in Plover, Wis., has grown into an extensive, award-winning Web site. As of July 1999, there were more than 126,000 visitors to the parish site (http://stbrons.com) and more than 34,000 visitors to Father Pat's Place, his personal site (http://frpat.com/).

The site's latest honor is the CatholiCity Frequent Flyer Award, which is displayed on St. Bron's homepage. It's one of about 250 sites selected by CatholiCity from throughout the world. "Any awards our site receives exposes it to more people," Father Pat said. "That's the chief benefit."

The site, which grew rapidly from 25 to more than 100 pages, also has been recognized as a USA Today Hot Site, Web Surfer's Choice Home Page of the Year finalist, the Golden Grail Award and the Virtual Reality Mall Pick of the day for Christmas Day. Catholic Digest has also given the site a Heaven's Choice Award.

Father Pat, who designs and maintains the site himself, said he was honored to receive the CatholiCity Award. "It means that CatholiCity sees our site as faithful to Church teaching and worthy to recommend to its many visitors," he said. "Ours is on e of just two or three Catholic parish sites they've included."

Through his cyber-ministry, Father Pat offers visitors world-wide more than 100 pages on issues ranging from grief support, resentments, marriage problems and annulments to holiday-related pages featuring Easter, Mother's Day, Memorial Day and Christmas. The site's "This Weekend" page, which provides the weekend's Scriptures, reflection questions and a weekly reflection, has had more than 5,500 visitors in the past three months.

"I try to design the environment just as I would a liturgical environment: friendly, welcoming and conducive to prayer and reflection," said the 48-year-old Father Pat, who generates his ideas from visitor's questions and concerns. "The environment changes too, with the liturgical seasons and special times of the year.

In addition to a daily Morning Prayer message, containing a short Scripture reading, meditation and prayer, has reached more than 5,000 members throughout the world, including the United Arab Emirates, Trinidad-Tobago, Australia, France, Japan and Germany, and most other countries as well.

"As it appears in their mailbox, they have the choice to read it or delete it," said Father Pat, a native of Stoddard, Wis. "Many of our members would feel guilty deleting it. Taking the minute or two to \read it provides a good opportunity for God to speak to them. That's the goal, to help people open themselves up to God.

Along with the exposure the awards give, Morning Prayer members and site visitors often recommend the Web site to their friends through an on-line referral system. It's also common for members to print page and send them to friends who do not have internet access.

"there are a lot of people wandering through cyber-space with some time to spend. There are lots of less worthy places for them to visit," Father Pat said. "I like to think of our site as having a fish hook in the water 24 hours a day. I can take a day off and still touch more than 5,000 families who receive Morning Prayer and several hundred more that visit our sites. It's any pastor's dream to be able to touch that many lives each day.

The St. Bronislava Parish site contains more than 140 separate pages. "Father Pat's Place" is large as well, and contains many pages that are linked from the parish page. More than 300 Web sites from throughout the world link to St. Bron's site.

"As technology develops, it's good that the Church establishes a presences," said Father Pat, who has been invited by the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York, to conduct a workshop on Internet Evangelization in September.

"Jesus went where the people were, especially those who were in need of attention and direction. There are lots of people wandering through cyber-space at all times of the day and night. We're ready to welcome them."

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E-prayer: Plover priest reaches out via the Internet

By Tom Heinen
of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Staff
01 August 1998
Link to this article on the Journal Sentinel Web Site

This article also appeared in the the 07 August 1998 edition of the San Diego Union Tribune, the 08 August 1998 edition of The Corpus Christi Caller Times in Texas, The Evansville Courier in Indiana, The Middletown Times Herald Record in New York, newspapers in Seattle, Washington, the Manchester Union Leader [New Hampshire], The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette [Indiana], the Eau Claire Leader Telegram [Wisconsin] and a newspaper in Bloomer, Wisconsin.

It's inspiration by e-mail, salvation by circuit board and virtual baptism by bytes. Sitting at his computer in a Portage County village that has barely 10,000 souls, Father Pat Umberger reaches across cyberspace each day to spark the lives of people around the globe.

Looking to put a little spring in your spiritual step? Or maybe more zing with your morning coffee?

Join the more than 2,360 people who have signed up to get his e-mailed morning prayer, Scripture reading and meditation each day.

We're not just talking about friends and parishioners from St. Bronislava Parish in Plover, where he's better known as a pastor than as a metaphysical Webmaster.

The morning messages go throughout the United States, Canada and western Europe, and to people in places such as Poland, Bosnia, Japan, Malaysia, Trinidad, South Africa, the Philippines and Australia.

"Any pastor's dream is to be able to touch 2,300 families every day," said Umberger, 47. "I'm even thinking that is a low estimate because I'm constantly hearing from people who forward it to other people. One guy said, 'I just want to tell you, I send it to 85 people, too.' "

As a bonus, members of his free morning service also get his periodic "Round Up the Usual Suspects" offering -- a mix of sometimes poignant, sometimes humorous, sometimes miraculous stories that tug at the heartstrings and pump a little inspiration into everyday lives.

Perhaps you're as big a fan of Mark Twain as Umberger , who grew up in Stoddard, Wis., next to the Mississippi River? One of the more than 100 World Wide Web pages that he's crafted features wry quotes from Twain and links to sites devoted to the author.

Or maybe you're a Catholic who hasn't gone to confession in what seems like a zillion years? Try clicking your nervous mouse on his reconciliation page for a stroll through an examination of conscience and a "cheat sheet" that you can carry with you into the confessional so you'll know exactly what to say and do.

Want more information about the Catholic Church? Dealing with deep grief? Want your prayer intentions posted? Need to "talk" anonymously to a man of the cloth about a personal problem?

Are you, like Umberger , coping with cancer and looking for support? His treatments for eye cancer appear to have been successful, but he knows all too well the uncertainties patients face.

Or maybe you'd like to tap into Umberger's latest offering, a list of his favorite recipes that includes his heavenly vegetarian chili?

He's got all that for you and more through the St. Bronislava Web site or his "Father Pat's Place" Web site.

USA Today named his church Web site a hot spot last year and included him in feature on cyber-communities this March. Catholic Digest recently gave the site a Heaven's Choice award and named it one of the top sites for its readers to visit.

Umberger converted to the Internet in May 1996 by sending morning prayers to staff members of St. Bronislava. They shared with others, demand grew and Umberger used a Microsoft program to teach himself how to design Web pages to provide parish Mass schedules and other information.

It grew, and he added his personal site in March 1997, including vocational information about what led him to the priesthood.

"My goal with the sites was to design them just like I would a church, to make them welcoming and warm," he said. "There's music, there's pictures, there's faces. There's words, too, accurate words. We don't water down words at all. We show people that it can be very helpful and faith can be challenging."

Some people find the sites by using Internet search engines to look for religious sites. Many learn of them when friends share the prayers and stories. And more than 150 other Web sites contain links to Umberger's sites.

He gets 75 to 100 e-mail messages a day and uses the questions and comments to help determine what new pages to add. Part of the more than two hours he spends on electronic ministry daily is devoted to responding personally to messages from people who are seeking help.

His readers in turn provide all of the inspirational stories he periodically uses, passing along items that are circulating in their communities.

"A lot (of his users) are people who are searching," he said. "A lot are people who subscribe to everything that has to do with religion. I think the church needs to reach out to young adults, like the college students, and we try creative ways to do that all the time. This is one of the better ways."

He estimates that one-third of the people who receive his morning prayers or visit his sites aren't Catholic. Inactive Catholics can be uncomfortable approaching a priest in person when they are trying to get back into the church, he noted. The Internet offers the security of distance and anonymity. For some, the prayers alone are enough.

"This past week I received an e-mail from somebody who said: 'You don't know what you've done, but my goal was to get closer to the church. I've been reading your prayers, and I just want you to know that I went to Mass last week for the first time in 30 years.' "

Depending upon a person's problems or spiritual quest, Umberger gradually tries to get him or her into personal contact with someone in their area who will be welcoming.

"I get a lot of e-mail from people who are thinking about being a priest or a sister," added Umberger , who knows of at least three seminarians who had their initial vocational contact with him or were influenced by him.

"I get them talking to the right people. It's surprising how many people who receive our morning prayer write and say, 'I've never told anybody this before, but I keep feeling I want to do this.' "

St. Bronislava: http://stbrons.com "Father Pat's Place": http://frpat.com

Communities crop up on the Net

When Chuck Solley isn't working or fishing near his home in Glen Burnie, Md., you'll probably find him updating Chuck's Bassfishing Page on the Internet, or helping someone put up a Web page devoted to the Great Outdoors.

And when Father Pat Umberger isn't at Saint Bronislava Parish in Plover, Wis., he's likely to be in cyberspace, too, ministering to his ''other congregation'' - a virtual one made up of Catholics and non-Catholics the world over who have seen his page and signed up for the 47-year-old priest's Morning Prayer e-mail list.

They are among the more than 1.4 million Net users who have built online homes on free Web pages at GeoCities, one of a new generation of sites devoted to aggregating virtual ''community,'' the latest buzzword of those seeking ways to draw return visitors and attract advertisers.

Other Web sites selling community include Tripod, geared to the 18-to-34 crowd; Third Age, for those over 50; and Digital City, a spinoff of America Online. Its 32 online city guides will be redesigned this year as local Web-based communities. The first to get the makeover was Digital City New York in January.

''The concept of 'virtual community' has gone from something people couldn't believe existed to being the 'killer app' for a profitable Web site,'' says Gail Ann Williams of The WELL, the 13-year-old San Francisco community that was one of the first pioneers. ''It's the latest gold rush on the Net.''

At GeoCities, ''homesteaders'' get free Web pages in a choice of 41 ''neighborhoods'' grouped by common interests (Solley is in Yosemite; Father Pat, The Heartland). Advertisers who buy the virtual equivalent of billboards in these neighborhoods get ready-made target audiences for products ranging from sporting goods, books and music CDs to computers or travel deals.

When David Bohnett founded GeoCities three years ago, ''commercialism was viewed as a bad thing,'' says the 41-year-old entrepreneur. ''But we're building a new type of community by embracing advertisers and sponsors. We've brought a business awareness to this whole model.''

With content provided mostly by people posting homemade hobby pages and staffing mostly by volunteers who think it's fun, GeoCities consistently ranks as one of the Top 10 sites in number of visitors. In February, 12.5 million Web users visited GeoCities sites, says market research firm RelevantKnowledge.

''It's kind of like, 'You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours,' '' says Solley, 33, an electronic technician who spends 15 hours a week as a volunteer ''community leader'' and considers the free Web pages and satisfaction he receives ''as good as money.'' He's responsible for patrolling a block of 500 GeoCities homesteads, where he welcomes newcomers, scouts for cool pages and removes abandoned ones to make room for some of the thousands more a day who want to move in.

Solley says he doesn't mind the advertising and loves the fact that good pages get promoted on the front door to each neighborhood. ''Getting exposure to your site is one of the biggest benefits,'' he says.

Father Pat isn't crazy about ads, but calls it ''awesome that somebody would give you something free.'' And he knows people find his page ''because it's on GeoCities.''

Christopher Boetticher of Philadelphia has been singled out for having a cool page about beer on Tripod, but says he hasn't really made friends with others in Tripod's Beer Lovers area. ''It always seemed kind of detached to sit at home and type to other people,'' says Boetticher, 27.

Some people still don't get what ''virtual community'' is all about, and that's not surprising - the expression itself is ambiguous, says George Washington University sociologist Amitai Etzioni. He spoke recently at the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference in Austin, Texas, where online communities were a hot topic.

Virtual is ''a loaded word, because virtual means not real,'' he says, but the warmth and sharing some groups find on line is just as authentic as in face-to-face communities.

Etzioni notes that ''there is no official definition'' of community, but says the term is being used ''very, very loosely'' by people trying to market Web sites. By his definition, to be a real community, on line or off, a group must feel a warmth and caring, and must ''share a set of meanings and understandings.''

While not all online groups meet those criteria, he says, there's nothing about the online world inimical to community. ''Some prerequisites of community are met better on line and others are met better off line,'' he says.

Still, the promise of community makes for a powerful marketing pitch, because people today ''lead more rootless, fragmented lives than ever before,'' says Howard Rheingold, author of The Virtual Community (HarperCollins, $13).

Rheingold's 1993 book popularized the idea that warm, supportive networks could be cultivated among people who had never even met face-to-face. But if Net newcomers flock to sites like GeoCities seeking ready-made groups of friends, ''they're not going to find what they're looking for,'' he says. ''It takes a while to really get acquainted, for community to build.''

Neither Solley nor Father Pat claims to have found that kind of community on GeoCities, although the priest feels a strong sense of community with the 1,200 people on his Morning Prayer list and with those who seek his advice on line.

''I'm with the people here (at St. Bron's) every day and I know their faces and names, but it's every bit as powerful if people write by e-mail,'' he says. ''It's a ministry, there's no doubt about that.''

Even on The WELL, which is ''really famous for being a community,'' Williams says, ''it's weird to offer it as a commodity. It's more ethical as a business practice to promote it as a conversation space where you may be able to form community ties.''

The fact that The WELL does practically no marketing may be why it hasn't grown beyond about 11,000 members, and financially is just breaking even, with a staff of about eight, Williams says.

But others are more focused on the bottom line. ''We're not doing this as a charity organization,'' says Bohnett. GeoCities, a privately held company, isn't profitable yet, but he forecasts it will be within the year.

Tripod wasn't making money either, until it was acquired for $58 million last month by Lycos, an Internet search company; Yahoo!, another search company, recently announced plans to invest in GeoCities.

While people on the Net traditionally ''don't want to have commerce in their face,'' there's nothing incompatible about commerce and community, says Jon Lebkowsky, a longtime participant in online communities and author of the upcoming Virtual Bonfire (MIT Press).

''People go to street markets to hang out and meet each other, but also to buy things. …You don't go to the owner of a bar and say you won't hang out there until they take all the beer signs down.''

He predicts that all kinds of businesses will soon put community-building features such as chat rooms on Web sites, and he thinks that's a good thing, as long as they care about their customers and respect them.

''People will catch on real fast to sites that are exploiting them in some way,'' he says.

PLOVER-It is ministry by modem. Father Pat Umberger sits in his office, in front of his computer, in a state of complete concentration. His eyes are locked on the multi-colored monitor, his hand deftly works the mouse, clicking and scrolling through segment after segment of the voluminous St. Bronislava home page. He stops at what looks like a mini-TV featuring the thumbnail sized image of Oliver Hardy getting smacked in the face with a snowball, over and over. "They love that, says Father Pat, 46, who smiles and giggles each time Ollie gets whacked. "The kids especially love that. It's fun. It brings them in."

He scrolls some more, down pages and pages of everything from advice on grieving to a handy "cheat sheet" for confession, to the ever-popular "Saint Site" where the biographies of assorted saints are accessed. "I painted the pages green on Monday for St. Patrick's Day," Father Pat announces. "you've got to change things constantly to keep bringing people back to your home page. And pictures are good. And music. Unfortunately, we gave up music on the home page for Lent. But it'll be back!"

It is evangelism via e-mail. when Father Pat debuted the St. Bronislava site on the world Wide Web last May, his intentions were modest: To offer schedules for Mass and Bingo; weekly prayer requests, and perhaps some helpful information on grieving or the process of annulment. Little did he know that in the months ahead, his cyber-ministry would attract thousands of Web surfers from nearby Wisconsin Rapids, to far-flung places like Sweden, Norway, Malta, Bosnia and Trinidad.

Aside from his parish following, his page attracts Protestants, Catholics and Jews alike. Some arrive by word of mouth, others by punching in key words, like "Catholic" or "religion" in search engines that pinpoint Web sites around the globe. "It was amazing to me just how many people began to access our page," he says. "The information about grief was particularly interesting to people. Then one day a good friend of mine was killed in an automobile accident. And I was wondering what to do myself when a message came from a friend in Texas, a man named Jim. His advice? 'Read your own page on grieving.'"

Today, Father Pat, who grew up in the little Mississippi river town of Stoddard south of La Crosse, spends approximately four hours a day maintaining his ministry on the World Wide Web. His early mornings are spent updating and answering e-mail from around the globe; evenings are devoted to adding new material, refining the local weather forecast and adding the morning prayer. The prayer is e-mailed just before midnight, he says, "so our European friends have it waiting for them when they get up in the morning."

I suggest that this priest from central Wisconsin has become the Rupert Murdoch in the cyberworld of religious publishing. Father Pat laughs. "I became a priest to spread the gospel and assure people that somebody up there loves them, " he says. "There are many ways to do that. The computer is one of them."

In some ways, the impersonal aspect of personal computing has brought total strangers to Father Pat for help. IN two recent instances - one involving a computer contact in Hawaii and another in Alaska - the Wisconsin priest was able to intercede on behalf of his Internet friends and introduce them to their local ministers.

"Whatever works," he says. "I have a sense that I am reaching out to people who would otherwise not be contacted by the clergy. There are many who seem to have no formal religious affiliation. There is just a hunger." Father Pat got a sense of just how important his cyber-ministry is to people when he encountered a serious personal problem of his own last year. He was diagnosed with a rare strain of cancer in the form of a tumor within his right eye. In part, thanks to some advice and research he received on the Internet, he discovered a treatment offered at a hospital in Boston. He also learned how much his computing parishioners care. "I heard form everybody," he says. "It was gratifying."

Today Father Pat is on the emend. The spread of cancer seems to have been arrested. He has regular blood tests, and when the come up negative, he shares his medical status with friends on the information highway. "When they get the good news," he reports, "they tell me it's OK to buy green bananas."

Father Pat Umberger's cyber-ministry is decidedly unconventional. The computer screen is his pulpit and his flock circumscribed only by the limits of technology. All the worlds' a web and anyone with a modem is a potential parishioner. "The computer is a great instrument of creativity," he declares. "You can do a great ministry on the Internet. Just sitting here in Plover, Wis., you are capable of delivering so much joy to so many people.

Father Pat's World Wide Web address is: http://www.coredcs.com/~sbro/ Meanwhile, you can e-mail Steve Hannah at RHDN51A@ Prodigy.COM This article appeared as a syndicated column in 18 newspapers the weekend of 22 and 23 March 1997.

Taken from the 16 January 1997 issue of the Times Review, the official newspaper of the Diocese of La Crosse. The Most Rev. Raymond L. Burke, publisher. Member of Catholic News Service and Catholic Press Association. Subscription information appears at the end of this article. It's a great paper and a great asset to faith in any household, why not consider subscribing?

PLOVER - By day, he is known as pastor of St. Bronislava Parish in Plover. By night, he is known as "Priest On-Line."

Father Pat Umberger, also known as "The Webmaster," administers St. Bronislava's home page. It has more than 90 pages, complete with parish administration information, photos of staff and parish events, a prayer page, spiritual reflections, and pages to facilitate ministry for any situation.

Information on church annulments, a grief support page, an "away at school page" for college students away from home, a youth ministry page, prayer page, and links to thousands of other resources are available at the click of a mouse.

Father Umberger updates the page information regularly, even changing the photo of St. Bronislava Church to match the seasons. He reads his many e-mails daily to see if the sender can be ministered to in any way. He also sends out daily Scripture reflections to a large group of personal friends and friends he has met via the Internet.

What brought Father Umberger to place his ministry on the World Wide Web? He sees the Internet, as well as the St. Bronislava's Home Page, as a great evangelization tool, and a way to educate Web surfers about the Catholic church and the church in the Diocese of La Crosse.

"And, it's a safe place to visit," he said. "There are enough dangerous places on the Internet ... ours is a place of comfort and safety. And people sense that," he said. "Many of our visitors consider themselves cyber-members of our parish. I've sent cyber-prayers, cyber-blessings, cyber-hugs and even cyber-chicken soup - all just about as effective as the real thing."

According to Father Umberger, folks who e-mail him ask both general and very specific questions about the Catholic church. Some users working through a personal loss stumble across the grief page, and then ask Father Umberger for advice or assistance in dealing with grief. Others ask about annulments, or becoming reconciled with the church.

"I've answered many, many questions for people," he said. "And the blessing has been helping them go to speak with their own pastor. Several times I have called that pastor on the phone and asked them to be on the alert for for someone I've communicated with, to be gentle and compassionate with them."

Father Umberger said those looking to be reconciled with the church are often far away from it, and are wary of a personal visit to a priest. "I'm safe because I don't know where they are, and they never have to see me," he said. "If I'm not compassionate, they can simply delete the e-mail."

The Web, being a universal communication mode, has led to these types of contacts in Australia, Europe, Hong Kong, South Africa and Mexico, as well as the United States, he said. "My estimate is that 25 people have become reconciled with the Catholic church" after an initial contact through the computer, he said. "Almost 20 couples have gone to see their parish priest about a church annulment. Many people have returned to the celebration of the church teaching. He said he directs them to the on-line version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church for more information.

Father Umberger said he himself has made use of the ministry he provides. When three members of a family he is close to were killed in a car accident, he posted a call for prayers in an on-line support group he participates in. "By 7 a.m. (the next morning) I had 111 messages of sympathy and support," he said. "One of my friends even suggested that I read my own Grief Support Page," he said. Of the grief page, "My friend wrote, 'It's good ... read it.' He was right! Sometimes we need to hear the things we tell others."

Father Umberger has made contacts all over the world, but he is not every day, he has instituted a "virtual youth group" on-line for his own the parish's Youth Ministry Office now has its own home page and e-mail address.

The Virtual Youth Group consists of high school students in Wisconsin and Michigan. Father Umberger said it has been a little slow getting going, and has about 15 members. "I hope it continues and becomes a virtual college group when many of the members go away to school next year," he said, adding the contact has helped him become more comfortable communicating with teen-agers and understanding their jargon.

"It has given high school-age students another contact with the church, and individual members often e-mail the others and me with questions and concerns," he said. "It's the first group of its kind that I have heard of."

Father Umberger also posts the parish's home-page address in its bulletin, on all the parish's stationary, and even on the parish's calendar. Bulletin announcements and other information for the parish office are accepted by e-mail as well, he said.

"Parishioners are proud of our presence on the Internet," he said. "When they have visitors, they often show them our pages, the pictures, and pass off the URL (the address)." And proud they should be. St. Bronislava's home page has won several awards, is rated a "safe surf page," and is currently in the running for the Web Surfer's Choice Home Page of the Year. Voting continues through Jan. 18 and can be accessed through St. Bronislava's home page (vote for #104).

In summing up the Internet experience, Father Umberger said those searching the Internet for spiritual renewal and information are doing so in order to better understand the church.

"They seem to seek some understanding and healing and are looking for acceptance and greater involvement," he said. "The Internet can be a great first contact tool - but just that. Contact with real people is what the people I've corresponded with are looking for. And I can often help them summon the courage to seek it."

That's why he ends every e-mail message with Psalm 46, "Be still and know that I am God," and with his own sign-off, "Keep me in your prayers and know you are remembered in mine as well."