A fish hook in the water
A fish hook in the water
Reaching out through creative use of the
Internet.
Convocation 2002, Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin, 24 September 2002
Father Pat has also presented
workshops for the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York
and the National Association of Catholic Communicators Convention in Las Vegas
Quotes | Resources | Web Sites | Networking | Collect Information | Education
All church communication—even her
technologically or mass-mediated communication—should flow from the foundation
of God’s self-revelation. Human communication in the Church mirrors the
communication of the Trinity, the Divine community, in whom we discover the
fullness of communion and communication." Page 1.
"The Church, formed by the Word of God, nourished by that Word, and given life by the Spirit, seeks through her communication to make real the desire for communion, the formation of community, the proclamation of God’s word, and the voice of God’s little ones." Page 1.
"In her formal reflections, the Church has long acknowledged that communication media have a role in fostering community and spreading the Gospel." Page 1.
"The communication of the Church targets two audiences: Catholics, both active and inactive, and the general public." Page 5.
| "Pastoral
Plan for Church Communication," United States Catholic Conference, Inc., Washington, D.C., 1997. |
"The power of media extends to defining not only what people will think but even what they will think about." #4
"Education and training in communications should be an integral part of the formation of pastoral workers and priests. There are several distinct elements and aspects to the education and training which are required. For example, in today’s world, so strongly influenced by media, Church personnel require at least a working grasp of the impact which new information technologies and mass media are having upon individuals and society. They must likewise be prepared to minister both to the ‘information-rich’ and to the ‘information-poor’. They need to know how to invite others into dialogue, avoiding a style of communicating which suggests domination, manipulation or personal gain. As for those who will be actively engaged in media work for the Church, they need to acquire professional skill in media along with doctrinal and spiritual formation." #18
| "Aetis
Novae: A New Era," Pastoral Instruction on Social Communications, Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Published by the United States Catholic Conference, Washington, D.C., 1992 |
The Internet makes finding information easy and convenient. Some of the more comprehensive Catholic resources are linked from Father Pat's Place.
National Council of Catholic Bishops: U.S. Catholic Conference
www.nccbuscc.org/
Diocese of La Crosse Web Site:
www.dioceseoflacrosse.com/
The Vatican:
www.vatican.va/
Catechism of the Catholic Church, on-line version:
www.christusrex.org/www1/CDHN/ccc.html
SEARCH ENGINES:
It’s easy to find whatever you’re looking for by using a Search Engine. Depending on the Web Browser you use, you may be able to enter key words in the browser bar to do an automatic search. My favorite Search Engine is:
Bookmark your favorite Catechetical Sites. Share them with your Catechists and with other Directors of Religious Education, students and parents.
Web Sites need to be updated constantly. If it's always the same, spider webs begin to grow and people aren't likely to return.
Provide information that is useful to
people ... and information that they'll like. Design your Site as you
would a Church environment. It should look friendly, warm and
inviting. Provide new pages for new Seasons. Our newest page is for
the Feast of Saint Francis
www.frpat.com/francis.htm
Pages were provided for Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Mother's Day and Father's Day as well ... as a way to get more people to visit, and to add a Catholic perspective to those days. Our special blessings for Mother's Day and Father's Day were used by parishes all over the world. With the proper following, it's possible to touch the lives of many individuals and faith communities throughout the world. And it doesn't cost any more!
FREE WEB SITE HOSTING
Free Web Sites for Catholic Parishes and Schools
You are most likely entitled to a free Web Site on the Server operated by your Internet Service Provider. They're usually part of the package.
INTERNET DOMAIN NAMES
for example, rather than our old URL, www.win.bright.net/~holyfam/
,
we became:
www.holyfam.com/
You'll need to find a name and register it, pay the fee and then find a Server
to serve that name for you. You'd register it at:
www.networksolutions.com or with one of the other companies that does that
now. The most reasonable is probably:
www.godaddy.com
The most reasonably-priced Serve we've found is:
www.netsonic.net
It offers the most features I could find, at the lowest
price. It's possible to get your own CGI bin and lots of other features,
including unlimited free e-mail accounts.
Handy if you'd like uniform
names, e.g.
frpat@holyfam.com,
karen@holyfam.com/,
srosemary@holyfam.com etc.
There's also a great discount for non-profit organizations, and another for
paying a year in advance.
If you don’t know how to build a Web Site, your
students probably do! If you start from scratch, you'll need Site Building
Software. We use Microsoft Front Page 2000. There are some shareware
and freeware packages that work just fine. You could find them at:
www.cnet.com
Ask students to design graphics for your Site, do drawings. Perhaps students could do Web Site work for extra credit, a class could design an Evangelization page geared to kids their age.
You can set up e-mail lists to link Catechists, students and Catechists, parents and Catechists, Parish Teams … anybody. And it’s free. Just go to: www.topica.com/, www.yahoo.com/ or www.coollist.com to set up a free e-mail list. Send an e-mail to one address and it goes to the entire list. It’s possible to set the list so all members can post to the entire list as well. With some you get a free chat room, calendar feature, etc. as well.
E-MAIL ACCOUNTS
Use the account at your own Server. Get free accounts on the Web, at:
www.hotmail.com/
www.catholic.org/
www.mail.excite.com/
and many more.
DISCUSSION BOARDS
Set up a discussion board that parents, catechists or students can visit
at any time. There are free ones available at:
It is also possible to pay a yearly fee to have advertising removed from your forums.
If you have your own CGI Bin, get your own message forum software free and
set up as many discussion forums as you’d like. We use Discus Software. There’s
a free version that’s perfectly fine. We have some closed forums and like the
password feature, so we use the Professional Version. There’s more information
at:
Check out our Discussion Forums at:
www.frpat.com/discus
Collect Feedback and Information
e-mail forms: Use e-mail forms to
collect information. If they're not provided by your Server you can get free
ones at:
www.bravenet.com
See some examples at:
www.frpat.com/prayers.htm
www.frpat.com/peregrine.htm
www.frpat.com/spacsprayers.htm
The visitor simply fills in the blanks and clicks "Submit Information." An e-mail including this information is then automatically mailed to you. If your Site is served by a firm with auto-responder capabilities, you can send an automatically generated reply e-mail to those who use your web-based e-mail forms.
Supply Information with Auto-Responders
It's possible to provide commonly requested information by asking your visitors to send a blank e-mail to a particular e-mail address at your domain. When they do, an automatically generated response will be returned to them immediately.
Click and send blank e-mails to these addresses for some
examples:
weekend@frpat.com
lastweekend@frpat.com
prayers@frpat.com
spacs@frpat.com
peregrine@frpat.com
crisis1@frpat.com
A new concept. The newest feature of our Web Site is a Crisis Novena. Click the Banner below to go there:
The Crisis Novena uses autoresponders to send people the daily exercises that are part of the Novena. For example, sending an e-mail to: crisis1@frpat.com will automatically trigger and e-mail the the sender with the exercises for Day 1 of the Crisis Novena.
Seize the "teachable moment" and use it to educate. e.g. The Kennedy decision to cremate bodies and bury them at sea. Interest of the public is there, incomplete and inaccurate information is being disseminated. Get some good information out.
We were immediately on the scene on 9-11, the day of the death of Princess Diana, etc. People are on the Internet searching for more information. If we capture the moment, they'll come to check our sites first.
Get ready ahead of time! It's a good idea to prepare for Liturgical Seasons and other events well ahead of time. It's lots less work. New features can be added to, as they're finished, when there is a gap where nothing much is happening, or when a noteworthy event happens. For example, we are ready right now to present information on the election of a new Pope, the Convocation, etc.
Provide "links" that might be helpful in a certain area … for catechists, students and parents. Send them by e-mail. Put them on a Web Site.
Here are a few examples of what I've done:
www.frpat.com/cremation.htm
www.frpat.com/resentments.htm
www.frpat.com/hpgrief.htm
There are plenty more at:
www.holyfam.com/
Special pages for special people. I've recently added new pages for
parents, teens and children at:
www.frpat.com/parents.htm
www.frpat.com/teens.htm
www.frpat.com/kids
So
many things are possible. The only limit is our own imagination.
Technology advances so rapidly that things that are impossible today are
commonplace tomorrow. So keep your eyes and ears open. And don't be
afraid to e-mail with questions and comments! May God continue to bless
you, your catechists, students and parents, and keep you safe. Have a
great year!
Father Pat Umberger
Holy Family Parish
Arcadia, Wisconsin USA
frpat@frpat.com
Our Web Sites:
www.frpat.com/
|
www.cmonback.com/ | www.holyfam.com/
©2002, Fr. Pat Umberger