In his message highlighting that 2010 is the Year for Priests and promoting May's 44th World Communications Day, Pope Benedict told Catholic priests that "Church communities have always used the modern media". Pope Benedict mentioned that simply sticking up a website with mass times and various church announcements is not enough.
The Pope's exact words to congregations were "to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites) which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis."
This is not to say that churches are going to stop publishing the weekly church bulletin, what it says is order to grow your parish you are going to have to get with the times. I don't envision pews stacked with Kindles or iSlates anytime soon, but little measures like Facebook, or Twitter will reach out to current church member and beyond.
While a quick search found several Metro Atlanta area Catholic churches with a presence on Facebook, I couldn't find any this morning that were active on Twitter. The Archdiocese of Atlanta actually has a pretty active Twitter account, so they appear to be taking the lead. This will all change in the weeks ahead, as churches realize the value of social media sites and what they offer.
Comments
It is so wonderful to see the Holy Father reaching out to those who utilize new media / social media on a daily basis. I know it would be easier for me to be engaged in my faith. I found a priest out of Chicago that I love who has a wonderful website that does just what the Pope asks! His name is Fr. Robert Barron and his website is www.wordonfire.org. Has anyone else ever heard of him? Check it out!
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