(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.)

A lot of parishes are exhausted by the time Pentecost comes around. Everyone has been through Lenten preparations, put on their Easter best and worked very hard at being “resurrection” communities in a special way for the time after Easter. First Communions, confirmations, end of the school year—you name it, we’ve done it. But we musn’t forget Pentecost, which we celebrate this year on May 31.

We call Pentecost the “birthday of the Church” for good reason. It was the gift of the Holy Spirit that gave the Apostles wisdom and courage to go forth and preach the Good News “to the ends of the earth!” That is the birth of the Church: our commitment to take what we have received from God and share it freely far and wide.

As “social networking” takes on increasing prominence on the Web, I’d like to suggest that the Church is the original social network. Our challenge as Catholic webmasters is to take inspiration (Holy Spirit, please?) from the many ways Catholics connect in community and translate them to the Web, to reach “to the ends of the earth.”

An idea for this season: If you haven’t yet, why not find a way to collect prayer petitions on your parish Web site? In a future entry, I’ll write a detailed summary of how we’ve done just that at St. Anthony Shrine over the past 10 years.

Meanwhile, Happy Pentecost! See the link to the Web button for our "From Easter to Pentecost" feature area. You’ll find other useful links to upcoming features in the graphics on this page.

John Feister
Editor, AmericanCatholic.org

Sacred Heart Cathedral in Rochester, N.Y. (Diocese of Rochester)

While without many multi-media bells and whistles, this site does provide the cathedral community an easy-to-navigate place to access needed information. The home page provides Mass times, coming events and links to the weekly bulletin and the online publication. The left nav bar, which is shown on most of the site’s inside pages, directs the user to information with a minimum of clicks. From there, the user can find: a Google map to the cathedral and links to e-mail addresses of parish staff in the “About Us” area; the current and archived bulletins; youth ministry information and photos; religious education forms and calendars; a page devoted to the cathedral shop. Yet, the cathedral site lacks an e-commerce feature, which would be helpful for online shopping as well as for making electronic donations. There is also information about bereavement with a link to a consolation counselor, to the cathedral school, to Mary’s Place, which distributes clothing at no charge, and an extensive list of three dozen news and information links.

 

U.S. bishops’ ‘Oppose Destructive Stem-Cell Research’ campaign

As the National Institutes of Health continued to gather comments on the draft guidelines that would permit federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops launched a new campaign outlining the reasons that the proposed changes are considered unacceptable and urging support for ethical cures and treatments "we can all live with." The home page includes a call to action and a video from Cardinal Justin Rigali, chairman of the U.S. Catholic bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities. The area includes: U.S. bishops’ conference 2009 press releases on the subject; the bishops’ 2008 statement, “On Embryonic Stem Cell Research”; eight commentaries made on the issue of embryonic stem-cell research over the last four years, including one on“Why the Embryo Matters”; and stem-cell FAQs in both English and Spanish, both with a downloadable PDF for bulletin insertion. There are also other promotional materials for parish bulletins, downloadable Web buttons urging Catholics to contact Congress and the NIH by May 26 and print ads urging funding of stem-cell research and the finding of cures “we can all live with.” There is alink to the National Committee for a Human Life Amendment site, which includes proposed language to send to Congress and the National Institutes of Health and a button to send an e-mail to one’s own congress member. Mark this area as “Worth-a-Click” for Catholics to consider getting involved and taking action in a timely issue before the public.

 

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