{"id":965,"date":"2009-03-06T13:41:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-06T13:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2009\/03\/faith-in-the-age-of-facebook.html"},"modified":"2009-03-06T13:41:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-06T13:41:00","slug":"faith-in-the-age-of-facebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/03\/faith-in-the-age-of-facebook.html","title":{"rendered":"Faith in the age of Facebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

Those of us who spend a fair amount of time floating through cyberspace — and if you’re reading this, you’re one of them — will appreciate this insight<\/a> about finding faith in the age of Facebook:<\/p>\n

<\/a> With a new media boom sweeping the digital world, the Catholic Church is doing its best to stay relevant. The Vatican recently launched a YouTube channel that offers video in Italian, English, Spanish and German to its 13,660 subscribers. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop\u2019s Office of Digital Media, responsible for developing and maintaining \u201ceverything Internet\u201d for the organization, links to audio podcasts of the daily Scripture readings (plus video reflections), videos on the sacraments and other Church topics, movie reviews and more. Singles are connecting via dating sites like CatholicMatch and CatholicSingles. And of course Catholic media, including the Catholic Herald, have jumped, keyboards-first, into the world of Web sites, blogs, Twitter feeds and Facebook pages to deliver material to a wider audience and a younger generation.<\/p>\n

Diocesan ministries, too, have embraced new media. A \u201cmedia center\u201d on the Arlington Diocese Web site, arlingtondiocese.org, connects users with informative videos, podcasts of talks from the young adult Theology on Tap series and additional audio selections of homilies, talks and reflections by Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde. The Office of Catholic Schools issues a quarterly electronic newsletter \u2014 the E-ducator \u2014 that is both e-mailed and posted online.<\/p>\n

Diocesan schools like St. Bernadette in Springfield and Linton Hall in Bristow use online tools such as Homework Hero to post assignments.<\/p>\n

Social networking, especially via the online phenomenon Facebook, has established itself as the crux of many diocesan groups. Young adults, youth and campus ministries, and even Catholic Charities and the diocesan Human Resource office, are updating their statuses, listing events or job openings, and posting photos. Nearly 200 people belong to the Facebook group \u201cWe Love Bishop Loverde.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t imagine trying to have a ministry to people in their 20s and 30s and not using Facebook,\u201d said Kateri Schmidt, coordinator of young adult ministry and operator of the Arlington YAM (young adult ministry) Facebook page. \u201cWe put all of our events on there. We can see how many people are coming; they can see who else is going. They can add it to their Outlook calendar. There\u2019s no way they can forget about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now with 641 \u201cfriends,\u201d Arlington YAM\u2019s Facebook page is growing steadily.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are looking for it there,\u201d Schmidt said.<\/p>\n

Father Brian Bashista, diocesan vocations director, has a personal profile on Facebook \u2014 he\u2019s a Capitals fan, a Virginia Tech alum and a member of the group \u201cDiocese of Arlington is the Greatest\u201d \u2014 and has created a group for those involved with the men\u2019s discernment program Quo Vadis.<\/p>\n

Even with his online presence, Father Bashista insists he\u2019s \u201cbehind the curve.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just trying to keep up with these young ones,\u201d he said. \u201cEspecially those in high school, they look at e-mail like we look at the slide rule. If they have an e-mail, they don\u2019t check it. They do everything through Facebook.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Continue at the link<\/a> for the rest. <\/p>\n

And if you missed it a few weeks back: you can find my own personal reflection on the world of Catholic blogging right here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Those of us who spend a fair amount of time floating through cyberspace — and if you’re reading this, you’re one of them — will appreciate this insight about finding faith in the age of Facebook: With a new media boom sweeping the digital world, the Catholic Church is doing its best to stay relevant.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,11,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links-r-us","category-media","category-my-world"],"yoast_head":"\nFaith in the age of Facebook - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/03\/faith-in-the-age-of-facebook.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Faith in the age of Facebook - 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