Web Catholic-Catholic Webmasters Blog

Today's "Areopagus"

At the beginning of the Church’s “Year of St. Paul,” (which started last weekend, commemorating the 2000^th anniversary of his birth) here’s a thought: What will my parish do to reach out more effectively on the Web in the coming year, the parish program year that will start as summer ends? Now is the time to be making plans—there’s time to get ready!

St. Anthony Messenger is committed to helping parishes figure out better how to use the Internet—we see the broad use of the Web as one of the “signs of the times” that recent popes, back to Pope John 23^rd, in the 1960's have reminded us to tune into. Our beloved late Pope John Paul II really understood this, calling modern communications the “areopagus” of modern times. That was a reference to St. Paul preaching the Greek philosophers in the Areopagus in Athens (see Acts 17). What will our Catholic parishes say to the world, that is now finding us in new and very immediate ways via the Web?

Better yet, what would St. Paul do?--JF

Pope John Paul II's apostolic letter letter on the Internet: The Rapid Development

The Church’s ‘great communicator’

Looking to find a role model for your work in communicating through the most modern means the Good News? The Church is providing its faithful a yearlong opportunity to be reintroduced to one who spurned and then proclaimed through his energy and his life the message of Jesus Christ. The Year of St. Paul, launching on June 28 the day before the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, provides the Church a chance walk the path of the most prolific contributor of the New Testament who brought the gospel to many lands in the ancient world unfamiliar with it.

See our special area devoted to the news coverage of 2008-2009 jubilee, including the announcements of Pope Benedict XVI authorized the granting of an indulgence and of the Vatican permitting Catholic parishes may mark the traditional Jan. 25 feast of the Conversion of St. Paul.

Consider placing the Year of St. Paul button on your site which will link your visitors to better understand the relationship of the Christian to the risen Christ and what is needed to live a truly Christian life.

Pauline ‘peace’ and Darwin anniversaries

Grace and peace! Pretty good opening line, don’t you think? St. Paul thought so, and introduced some of his many letters with that salutation. 

I bring it up now because the Church is preparing to celebrate the jubilee of the birth of St. Paul, beginning June 29, on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. The jubilee will provide a focal point for the Church that will last a year and will focus on such questions as: Who was St. Paul? Why was his energy as one of the Church’s early founders so important? In what ways do his writings speak to us today? We’re pulling together a feature for Catholic webmasters that will enable you to put a link on your site to content-rich sources that help your Web-site visitors sort out such questions. We’ll include a number of articles, and eventually some audio reflections and even e-greetings to help your visitors share this “Pauline moment.” Heads up!

We’ll get to Father’s Day and more in the next issue of Web Catholic, June 10. I’d like to tell you now about a lesser-known event that will be a growing issue on the religious scene between now and early 2009. February 12, 2009, will mark both the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his earthshaking work, The Origin of Species. The religious right will be up in arms, no doubt, as the media roll out any number of stories on evolution. What’s key for us to understand is that the Catholic Church essentially accepts evolution as a finding of science, which is in a different realm than the findings of theology. To be blunt, Catholics don’t have any problem with evolution, in spite of the uproar that will fly in some corners of Christianity in the coming months. We’ve prepared a news feature, with several articles now and more to be added in coming months, that will help you to inform your visitors about Catholic teaching in this “hot-button” area.

With that, let me wish for you, pioneers of Catholic communication, grace and peace! It’s what St. Paul prayed for those willing to step out and do something entirely new as early Christians!

John Feister
Editor, AmericanCatholic.org