catholic

I recently had the first of, I hope, many columns on Catholic online evangelization in the St. Louis Review. I will post the column here for archival purposes, but you can read the column on the Review website as well:

The Digital Continent | Catholics should become leaders in online communications

by Jeff Geerling

The status quo is no longer acceptable.

That was the gist of the two keynote talks during this year's Catholic New Media Celebration in Boston. The Catholic Church needs to become a leader in online communications and social media — and it needs to do so now.

Father Robert Reed, director of CatholicTV, an online and broadcast television network, suggested Catholics practice the craft of media production and web development as a skilled craftsman would fabricate a chalice: As the craftsman labors over every detail and creates a work of art, which leads the priest and those present at Mass to ponder the mysterious and divine Presence within, so should we communicate and design our websites so as to allow Christ's love and beauty shine.

There must be a professionalism to our craft. We cannot settle for anything less than the best, most useful, functional and interactive websites and service on the Internet.

[UPDATE: The Archdiocese of St. Louis now has an immense post with more links, pictures, quotes, etc. View it here.]

This year's CNMC MMX (Catholic New Media Convention 2010) was bigger and better than last year's convention; the venue had excellent WiFi access, there were even more Catholic media/new media representatives, and the atmosphere was generally more lively and exciting (mostly due to the great number of amazing people).

Here are some of the highlights from the convention, and links to more pictures and information:

Lino Rulli—a man with a large nose (an Italian)—spoke to the attendees of the Catholic New Media Celebration during a keynote address on Saturday, and talked about the importance of "doing things right" in new media.

He made three main points:

1. Study what others are doing, and copy what others are doing right.
2. Identify your passion and pursue it.
3. It is not *just the message* that matters.

I fully support these points, and I wish to highlight a few more salient points he made. He said that we need to see the good and effective things others are doing in media (old/new), and copy the best things they do. It's perfectly acceptable to do the same thing as everyone else—if it's awesome.

Fr. Robert Reed's keynote at this year's CNMC MMX was excellent. He started by giving us a 'goody bag' with something sweet, something neat, something deep, and something to eat. He then spoke about each topic and summarized the reason why we evangelize—not just online, but also on a personal level.

Something Sweet

Takeaway quote from this portion:

"There has to be an appeal, a professionalism, a standard to our craft."

I couldn't say it better myself. We need to perform at the highest level, in terms of design, grammar, and content—Catholics and those who are not yet Catholic deserve to receive the Gospel message in the highest and most beautiful form. People used to spend years and tons of money to create beautiful stained glass, manuscripts, and Catholic artwork to communicate the faith. Why do we not do the same today, with the new tools at our disposal?

A week or so ago, I was in a car wash, trying to think of something productive to do. Prayer was out, because I didn't think it would be as easy to connect with God through a wall of high-pressure water. So, I did the next best thing... I whipped out my iPhone, pointed the camera at yours truly, and hit record. What resulted was Catholic Car Wash.

In each episode of the podcast, I will be talking about a small bit of the wonderful Catholic faith—whether it be a Catholic practice, a part of Holy Mass, or some other crazy thing I want to share about the faith. Check out the first two episodes:

I'll be hanging around a bunch of other Catholic techies this Saturday in Boston, MA, at the Catholic New Media Celebration. In case you haven't heard, I just started a new podcast, Catholic Car Wash (read more about it), and I thought CNMC MMX would be a great venue for its introduction.

A good friend and fellow Catholic programmer/blogger, Matthew Warner, spent much of last night individually uploading tons of photos from last night's meet-and-greet. I figured I'd take the opportunity to send out a 'miss you' wish to my fiancée, Natalie:

You can see all of his photos here: Catholics in New Media: CNMC Kickoff

From the St. Louis Review's story, Archbishop Carlson makes an offer to the parishioners of St. Stanislaus:

In order to help get the parish re-established, I have committed that the archdiocese would provide the pastor for the first year of the reestablished parish without cost to the parish and would contribute up to $10,000 to pay the cost of the consultant for a fund drive to secure the finances of the parish corporation and the St. Stanislaus Corporation for the future.

This proposal has my full support and I will do everything in my power to make St. Stanislaus succeed as a personal parish for Catholics of Polish heritage.

I ask that you please join me in praying that reconciliation can be brought about and, with the help of God, healing will take place.

Just as with Archbishop Burke before, Archbishop Carlson seems to be willing to go to very great lengths to ensure the Catholicity of this once great parish—let us pray that this situation gets resolved sooner rather than later!