(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.)

Summer is a good time for parish webmasters to take stock of their sites. Parishes generally go into a slower pace during this season.

“Ordinary time”—that long season that starts at the conclusion of the Easter season, at Pentecost—is a good time to get a jump on what you’ll do with your site when things start up next fall. What is working well? Do you have the right team working on the site? Is there good, solid communication with the pastoral staff? Or, conversely, if the pastoral staff is operating the Web site, is there good communication with folks outside the parish office? The best of parish Web sites represent a kind of balancing act between the parish office and the various parish ministries that would do well to be represented on the parish site.

Here at AmericanCatholic.org, we have developed three features that offer you the chance to post some fresh content in the coming months, without doing a lot of work at your end. You’ll be interested in putting up a link right away to our Father’s Day feature, including special Father’s Day e-Greetings from our Catholic Greetings site. Coming up right before Father’s Day this year is Friday’s feast of St. Anthony of Padua—our own patron here at St. Anthony Messenger Press. He’s among the most popular of Catholic saints—check out our feature and consider linking to it!

Finally, June 29 is the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, and the launch of the Year of St. Paul in honor of the 2,000th anniversary of Paul’s birth. This papally declared, Church-wide celebration is a great way to reintroduce our parishioners to St. Paul, a hugely influential apostle from whom we hear each Sunday in our readings. Who was St. Paul? Why is he important? Was he really a sexist, or has Paul gotten a bad rap? Why is Pope Benedict XVI declaring this to be a year of Pauline appreciation? Your Web visitors will find articles (including a brand-new Catholic Update that will be online later this month) and other useful Web features at our St. Paul feature, which you can link to your own Web site with our attractive link button.

Enjoy the summer! As Paul would encourage each of us to do, “Rejoice in the Lord always!”

John Feister
Editor, AmericanCatholic.org

Below is a list of popular Catholic blogs. They just might inspire you to get blogging! Also, be sure to check out CatholicBlogs.com, a Google-like search engine for Catholic blogs. You can read more about this site in a previous post.

amywelborn.wordpress.com
lifeasacatholic.blogspot.com
sisternicole.blogspot.com
friarminor.blogspot.com
bestcatholicbooks.blogspot.com
pauseforprayer.blogspot.com
blog.patmulcahy.com
www.cardinalseansblog.org
www.markshea.blogspot.com

 

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