Web Catholic - Links and News for Catholic Webmasters - St. Anthony, Father's Day and Podcasts

June 9 , 2006

(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.)

Q U I C K S C A N

Parish Site of the Month
Worth a Click

Allow me to indulge our patron, St. Anthony of Padua, for a moment during our 10th anniversary on the Web. Back in 1996, we targeted St. Anthony Day (June 13) as our launch date, though we actually came online in April of that year. We wanted to honor Anthony because our site comes from the Franciscans, and Anthony was a follower of St. Francis. Over the years St. Anthony became a favorite among Catholic saints, known popularly as the “finder of lost things,” but, in truth, he is known far and wide as an amazing preacher of the Gospel. In Franciscan good humor, we named our search engine after him, pleading “St. Anthony, Help Me Find…” I hope we will be forgiven! The life of Anthony of Padua is one worth sharing with your Web visitors. Consider placing a link to our feature on your site during June.

Father’s Day (June 18) is on everyone’s mind now, already being promoted by stores and so on. I don’t remember the anticipation starting so early, but maybe I was just too busy with young children to notice! Catholic Greetings has a nice selection of Father’s Day e-cards for you to offer to your Web visitors. We also have articles about fatherhood to help place our celebration in a faith context. I think we can safely say that fatherhood is a school of faith, both for fathers and for those who love them!

Finally, our webmaster, Dave Rudemiller, has brought us into the next round of innovation with podcasts from our web/radio ministry, FranciscanRadio.org. The explosion of podcasting (mp3 audio files) is similar to what happened in the 1990’s with the World Wide Web. Learn more about our podcasts at FranciscanRadio.org. We’ll be getting links ready for our Webmaster section soon.

Peace and all good things!

John Feister
Editor, AmericanCatholic.org

Parish Site of the Month

Church of St. Anselm (Diocese of Trenton)
This site has a lot to offer with its list of upcoming events, the church's weekly bulletin and seasonal newsletter (each in .pdf format), and an archive of selected homilies from 1998 to the present. Users can view dates and times of events, Masses and meetings through the site's highly customizable calendar, powered by iCalendar. Browse the online parish photo directory, see pictures of the church's peace garden and surf over to St. Anselm's separate site for its music ministry.

Worth a Click

CatholicHistory.net
If you're interested in learning about the history of Catholicism in the United States, check out this new Web resource. It introduces you to the people, places and events that helped shape Catholicism in America. Read the current "spotlight" on American saints, and check out helpful links and suggested reading lists.

Link to our Father's Day feature for prayers, articles on fatherhood and men's spirituality and Father's Day e-cards.

The feast of St. Anthony of Padua, patron of lost items, travelers and the poor, is June 13.

Link to our new feature, “Da Vinci Code and the Catholic Church” for articles on Jesus, St. Mary Magdalene, FAQs about Catholicism and more.

Urge your site visitors to work for peace through prayer, outreach and works of charity.

It’s the original, now expanded with patron saints, saints by name or by date, and now with streaming audio!

Please check out the entire
St. Anthony Messenger Press family of e-newsletters: