New media bring new opportunities for proclaiming the Word Of God
By Tim Puet
Catholic Times
In the nearly 2,000 years since his crucifixion, the teachings of Jesus and his church have been spread by every means available, starting with word of mouth and continuing through the use of illustrated manuscripts, the printing press, radio and television, and the Internet.
Today, anyone sitting at a computer screen connected to the net can have an ongoing conversation with anyone else who shares that connection, eliminating boundaries of time and distance.
Much of that conversation takes place through blogging. “Blog” is short for “web log,” an online diary on which a person with a website can post thoughts on subjects of his or her choosing and invite others to respond. Most blogs usually also contain links to other websites.
Blogging began in the mid-1990s, started slowly, then gained in popularity with the arrival of tools which made it convenient for people to start their own blogs. BlogPulse, a site which tracks blogs and their popularity, said that as of July 20, there were more than 143 million blogs on the Internet, with more than 50,000 added daily. There’s no way of determining how many of those blogs are specifically related to the Catholic Church, but the number undoubtedly is at least several thousand.
The vocations office of the Diocese of Columbus has been using blogs, as well as other new media, including Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, and its website, www.seekholiness.com, to attract the attention of young people.
Father Jeff Coning, who was diocesan vocations director from 2005 until recently becoming pastor at Dover St. Joseph Church, established the website and the new media links. He said Face Forward, a Facebook application which also can be found on the site, officially was established in January, but has been around since early December.
“It’s important to have all these platforms when you’re trying to reach young people because a lot of kids now access the Internet over their phones rather than through computers,” Father Coning said. “Face Forward and seekholiness.com each have important roles, with the Face Forward platform as a whole providing a more regular means of contact than the website and providing a broader range of topics. The Face Forward blog is an intermediate stop between the full Face Forward platform and seekholiness.”
He said Face Forward has about 1,600 Facebook fans and receives an estimated 800 hits per week. Some of its most popular recent topics have been the recent ordination of three diocesan priests and the springtime bicycle tour taken by diocesan seminarians for the second straight year.
“Trying to help young people discern a vocation to religious life is a lot different today that it used to be,” Father Coning said. “Many priests describe how a suggestion from someone or their admiration for priests led to their vocations. Today, young people want to know everything they possibly can about the religious life before making that phone call expressing their interest in it.
“I know at least six young people now in the discernment stage for religious life who say they looked at the seekholiness site on a regular basis before contacting me, so it’s had an impact.”
Even Pope Benedict XVI has his own web presence, titled Pope2You. Though not a blog, it’s a gateway to new media being provided by the Vatican and includes Facebook, YouTube, and iPhone sharing of photos and messages from the Holy Father. Other bloggers in significant positions among Catholic hierarchy include Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston and Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York.
Most Catholic bloggers are laypersons who want to share their perspectives on faith and on life in general with others. Among them are frequent Catholic Times contributors Megan Thompson, youth minister at Gahanna St. Matthew Church; Mary van Balen-Holt, author and educator from Lancaster; and Sarah Reinhard of Plain City St. Joseph Church.
The May 4 posting on Thompson’s blog “The Great Surrender” appears in this week’s Catholic Times. Some of her other recent postings begin with thoughts about a church summer camp, World Cup soccer, a vacation to Myrtle Beach, and her tendency to be a “neat freak,” all leading to reflections on faith.
She has been blogging since November 2009 and said she tries to post something new each Tuesday. “My older brother got me started,” she said. “He began a blog about his life and I started reading it. Once I did, I realized that I have all these analogies relating faith to life in general and that this would be a perfect opportunity of expressing them.
“The blog has given me a chance to witness to my family and friends and a way to stay in touch with them I’d never had. It’s also been nice to go to Sunday Mass and find older parishioners who recognize me from my picture on the blog and enjoy it. Most of the comments I get about the blog come from friends and family, but every once in a while I receive one from someone I don’t know. A memorable one came from someone who said he just appreciated the joy about life he’s found through postings from me and other Catholic bloggers.”
Her advice to people unfamiliar with the “blogosphere” is to find one or two blogs they like and just click on links to other sources until they find additional favorites. “With as many blogs as there are now, you’re bound to find people whose blog topics are of interest to you,” she said.
Van Balen-Holt began her blog this past September. Its title is “The Scallop” because, as her blog page explains, the scallop shell is a symbol of pilgrimage which “reminds us that wherever our journeys begin, we arrive at the same place: the embrace of the Holy One.” Her July 9 posting begins by mentioning her interview for this story, then follows by noting that blogging provides a good reason to take a walk in the summer rain because it gives her a chance to take photos of “a showplace of flowers, weeds, and water” for the blog.
She has been contributing to the Catholic Times since the mid-1980s. “In the beginning, I would type columns and drop them off at the Times office, and that would give me a great reason to take a break, come to Columbus and chat with (longtime Times editor, the late) Mike Collins,” she said. “I’ve changed with the technology, going to disks and now to e-mail.
“One of the great things about having a blog is it allows me to quickly respond to current events such as the Gulf oil spill or elections. But most of my postings are reflections on nature or on the Scriptures which don’t have that immediate element of timeliness. The ones that usually get the most response are the ones that deal with faith and the struggles and challenges involved with loving and trusting God
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