(If you don’t have time to read this now, please take note of the buttons on the right. They are free for the taking, for you to use on your Web site. Click on a button to pick up the html code.)

My parish choir is getting ready for Holy Week and Easter. I know that because I’ve been at rehearsal each week, as usual, and have been singing all sorts of alleluias, as well as the Lenten hymns for upcoming Masses. The parish Web site is a lot like the choir. To have everything ready when your Web site visitors are ready to use them, the parish Webmaster needs to be thinking ahead.

Our job these days is to help our people understand and celebrate Lent in our parishes. No doubt your site is listing various events happening in your parish, or in neighboring parishes, or in your diocese: penance services, Way of the Cross celebrations, RCIA events, soup suppers and so on. Your Web presence does a service to your entire community by listing the events of your parish, as well as some basic information about Lent (and the reason for Lent: Easter!) to help your parishioners and their neighbors understand what Lent is all about.

We’re offering our popular links to help you with that information. You can find our attractive Lent feature, along with a button to place a beautiful graphic link to your site. It includes catechesis, Lenten meditations, all manner of rich content. We have the series of Lenten Radio retreats, one by a different bishop each week, which was produced with help from the U.S. bishops’ conference.

Come Easter time, don’t forget our "Easter to Pentecost" seasonal feature. We’ll have more about that in our next issue, but the graphic button is already there for you to use when ready.

Have a blessed, renewing Lent!

John Feister
Editor, AmericanCatholic.org

St. Patrick Catholic Church in Scottsdale, Ariz. (Diocese of Phoenix) This is an easy-to-use site that does not overwhelm the visitor with too much to absorb on its home page. There, users will find a “Staff Blog” that offers short messages about events happening within the parish or connected to the Church calendar. From its top navigation bar, the site opens up to specific information and resources about the parish. Extensive areas are devoted to Christian Formation, including ministries for elementary through teen students as well as sacramental preparation information, and Ministries, outlining parish efforts broken into nine specific outreach efforts. A text and video welcoming message from the pastor truly does draw the visitor into the site and the Catholic community. A downloadable PDF online parish magazine, Cry the Gospel!, and bulletin are available. There also are elements found on other successful parish sites, including: a pictorial tour of the six-year church; daily/Sunday readings links to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; Mass times; parish info, which includes photos of the parish physical plant and directions to the church; videos from the parish and links to YouTube and other interesting videos; and the photo gallery, which includes images from a variety of events, is up-to-date and shows a vital parish community.

 

Catholic Mobilizing Network to End the Use of the Death Penalty
As Holy Week and the observance of Good Friday, in particular, approach, a site that focuses on capital punishment and its connection to the faith-filled respect for all life from conception to natural death is one that is indeed “worth a click.” Launched a month before Lent began this year, the Catholic Mobilizing Network to End the Use of the Death Penalty, working in collaboration with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, serves as “a new resource to meet an urgent pastoral challenge.” “Upcoming Events” and “Action Alerts” appear on the home page and each interior page. There are links to the network’s Facebook page, to organizations focused on the death penalty and to “A Prayer to Abolish the Death Penalty,” by Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking. The site offers e-mail updates of breaking news, events and alerts, as well as resources—articles, pamphlets, flyers and videos—for classes and workshops. Mark this site as invaluable in being kept up-to-date on a subject that gets little press but is central to the work of building a culture of life.

 

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