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Evangelising Through The Media; effectiveness of internet and TV
Topic Started: Friday, 19. October 2007, 16:42 (723 Views)
Rose of York
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Can we locate some Catholic websites that actively:

Evangelise people who are seeking faith in Christ, and a Church to attend.

Reach out specifically to Catholics who retain their beliefs but rarely or never attend Mass, yet deep within their hearts, yearn to come back to the practise of their faith?

Offer pastoral care on a personal level to people who for any reason either feel neglected by their own Catholic communities, or just prefer to seek support from a person not in their parish. It may not be unhappiness or bitterness, it could even be that a Catholic who fears that contact from the local priest would cause family friction. It could be the Vicar! :D
Keep the Faith!

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There is this one
http://www.catholicevangel.org/Default.htm
but it seems to be more about teaching the evangelist than those we need to reach

KatyA
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Rose of York
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This one is really good. It is a page from Westminster Diocese site.

http://www.rcdow.org.uk/diocese/default.as...ontent_ref=1248

It is about a retired priest, Fr Francis Wahle, who uses the internet to reach out to those who, for whatever reason, do not feel that they are part of the Church any longer, to listen to them and to offer them pastoral care.

Fr Wahle has put posters with his contact details up in churches he has visited, and has distributed them around four deaneries, with support from the clergy. He has persuaded a posters with his photograph and contact details, advertising his ministry in over one hundred libraries. He is optimistic that this will allow him to reach people who no longer visit a church. He is of the opinion posters inside church buildings are not the best way of contacting people who never go inside the churches.

A retired priest remains active in the church, using modern communication methods. I hope and pray it will not be long before our bishops become aware that we have a huge potential workforce, ready and willing to serve, wanting to actively contribute. They are the people known as "the sick, the elderly and the housebound" who, in the imaginations of some, spend twelve months waiting for the next Old Foks Tea Party. :D

May God Bless Fr Wahle and his ministry.
Keep the Faith!

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Fr Francis Wahle was appointed as the Diocese of Westminster’s representative for Catholics who feel alienated from the Church at the end of 2005. His aim is to reach out to those who, for whatever reason, do not feel that they are part of the Church any longer, to listen to them and to offer them pastoral care.

It seems that this ministry has been active for almost two years now, so it is surprising that we have not heard more of it. This ministry seems similar to that formerly undertaken by priests regularly visiting their parishoners and this initiative by Westminster Diocese is an excellent way of reaching out.
I also notice that F Wahle realises that the people he wants to reach are not going to be reading Church notice boards - a fact which seems to escape many people.
Many parishes began RCIA in September, but I wonder how many advertised the meetings other than in the parish newsletter or notice board?
The internet could be an effective tool for reaching out to the lapsed and the curious and it would be interesting to know how many other dioceses include information for those wanting to know more about the faith or discuss the reason they feel alienated or unwelcome.

KatyA
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I had a look at three diocesan websites to see what was on offer:
http://www.dioceseofleeds.org.uk/
Newly revamped and with links to all areas on the start page. There is a link to the Catholic Enquiry Office and the Come and See Pastoral progamme

http://www.salforddiocese.org.uk/
Links to all departments available on the start page. Evangelisation is linked to the Welcome programme begun by the Bishops’ Conference.

http://www.birminghamdiocese.org.uk/index.asp
Plenty of information about the diocese, but I didn’t see any evangelisation links. The Pastoral Care Project looks good.

katyA
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Alan
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I had a great surprise this week with the delivery of our loal free paper. Included was a newsletter from our local Anglican Church, This letter with photo's of the local vicars included a specific invitation to non church going members in the community to join them at a specific Sunday Service.

God Bless all who visit this forum,

Alan.

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Now why can't we do things like that?

KatyA
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Eccleston Square - US style http://www.usccb.org/

They have a rather more informative site than our Bishops' Conference.

The Canadian Bishops Conference
http://www.cccb.ca/site/index.php?lang=eng
http://www.occb.on.ca/english/occb.html

KatyA
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Deacon Robert
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Here is a site I found today:

http://www.catholicscomehome.org/index.phtml
The burden of life is from ourselves, its lightness from the grace of Christ and the love of God. - William Bernard Ullanthorne

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ROME, Mar 18, 2008 / 12:24 pm (CNA).- The Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi is responding to questions about the faith each week by posting videos on YouTube.

According to AFP, Father Davide Milani, a spokesman for the cardinal, said the first video was posted four weeks ago and has been seen over 65,000 times, mostly by Italian users.  “We decided to launch the YouTube initiative in order to reach a wider public with the teachings of Tettamanzi,” the priest explained.

He said Cardinal Tettamanzi has received more than 400 questions on such topics as, “Why are the baptized considered children of God? Aren’t we all children of God?” and “Did baptism exist before the time of Jesus?”

The ten minute videos, which are in Italian, can be viewed at  http://www.youtube.com/user/itleditore 

Catholic News Agency

Unfortunately, the videos are in Italian; but perhaps one of our priest "bloggers" could be persuaded to launch a similar scheme

KatyA
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Rose of York
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KatyA
Mar 18 2008, 10:39 PM
The ten minute videos, which are in Italian, can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/user/itleditore

Catholic News Agency

Unfortunately, the videos are in Italian; but perhaps one of our priest "bloggers" could be persuaded to launch a similar scheme

KatyA [/QUOTE]
I think KatyA, Patrick and Lilo should do it.
Keep the Faith!

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Deacon Robert
Mar 8 2008, 06:09 PM

That site gets an "Excellent" rating from Catholic Culture

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Catholics Come Home is an independent, non-profit charity started and supported by a number of Catholic families and individuals. They began this ministry to welcome back those who have left the Church, for whatever reasons. The apostolate utilizes the media to inspire, educate and evangelize inactive Catholics and others, and invite them to live a deeper faith in Jesus Christ, in accord with the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church.

The "Catholics Come Home program" began in 1998, with the creation of a multimedia campaign for the Diocese of Phoenix, Arizona. In a matter of only a few weeks, the ads helped 3,000 inactive souls return to their Catholic faith!

This is an excellent site. Although much of the material consists of links to external sites, it provides a useful organization of information.


It appears to be run by Catholic families, not directly by the Church, and is quite impressive.

KatyA
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The website gets an excellent write up from CNA
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In less than three weeks, 3,000 Catholics returned to the Church in the Diocese of Phoenix due to the effort of a new lay apostolate, CatholicsComeHome.org.  The program consists of a website and commercials aired on local television that effectively portray the truth and goodness of the Catholic Church.

In an interview with CNA, Catholics Come Home, Inc. founder and president, Tom Peterson explained that the ads are designed to take people to the website, CatholicsComeHome.org, where they can find answers to questions about Church teachings, and also to put them into contact with their local parish to be led home, back to the Catholic Church.

CNA
It appears that commercials for the site were aired on major networks and they certainly seem to have worked.

KatyA
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Rose of York
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Quote:
 


The "Catholics Come Home program" began in 1998, with the creation of a multimedia campaign for the Diocese of Phoenix, Arizona. In a matter of only a few weeks, the ads helped 3,000 inactive souls return to their Catholic faith!


Quote:
 
It appears to be run by Catholic families, not directly by the Church, and is quite impressive.



The site appears to be run by Catholic families. In a matter of only a few weeks, the ads helped 3,000 inactive souls return to their Catholic faith!


Food for thought?
Keep the Faith!

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XT3 Media, a Catholic multi media charity, dedicated to supporting the work of the Church, has launched its "Connecting Parishes" project. The charity is offering a highly professional website to parishes throughout the United Kingdom. The user friendly password protected Content Management System, means that a parish website is easy to update and manage. All the technical aspects including web hosting are provided by XT3 Media. Although the functionality of the sites is the same, the 'look and feel' of each site is unique to each parish.

Endorsing the project, Fr Keith Herrera from St Columba's Aberdeen, said: "As a parish priest I have found Xt3's website a wonderful tool for the parish. I have found it amazingly easy to add new material and content according to our needs. The feedback from the parishioners has been immensely positive and encouraging. The support from the Xt3 team has been superb and I'm only sorry I didn't find out about them earlier. To anyone thinking about inviting them to build your parish website, I would give you my wholehearted encouragement."

Three parishes in the Diocese of Lancaster have taken up sites: St Begh's Whitehaven http://www.stbeghschurch.co.uk/, St Catherine's Penrith http://www.stcatherinepenrith.org.uk/ and St Cuthbert's Wigton http://www.stcuthberts-wigton.org.uk/

The project is being run on a donation basis. For more information please visit the website www.xt3media.org and view the Connecting Parishes section or email katie@xt3media.org

© Independent Catholic News 2008ICN
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