The parish is waking up! At least it may look that way, as schools go back into session, parish religious-education programs begin again and people, back from summer commitments, generally start showing up at Church in greater numbers. Hopefully, your parish team has taken advantage of the past few months to look at the parish Web site and dress it up a bit for a new season.

AmericanCatholic.org, now in its 12th year, is still working to provide links that will help your parish Web site to fulfill its mission: to be a growing, fresh, evolving place for parish communications. As Fall begins, here are some things to watch for. First is a link to our “Back to School” feature, which helps your site visitors “get back into gear.” Also, we have a few features you might be interested in just for this year. One is our “Year of St. Paul” feature, during this anniversary of Paul throughout the entire Church. Another is “Election 2008” featuring articles that will help your visitors hear our bishops’ leadership on election issues as things heat up for November. Finally, looking forward to the 2009 anniversary of Charles Darwin’s work on evolution, we have a feature, “The Church, Evolution and Creation,” to help your visitors nurture informed Catholic opinion about this persistent issue.

Two final notes to share with you. Beginning September 14, ABC-TV will be offering our Assisi Pilgrimage—Walking in Faith With Francis and Clare to its affiliates in its Vision and Values series. We’re encouraging all Catholics and others to go to www.InterfaithBroadcasting.com for local listings, then contact their local ABC stations and ask them to air the program. More will be at our Web address www.PilgrimageDVD.com, now under rapid construction!

Finally, we at AmericanCatholic.org are undergoing a bit of renewal ourselves this month. After eight great years of service, our webmaster, Dave, is moving on. We owe him a great debt for helping to build, expand and maintain our Web ministry all these years. Our team of Sharon, Jim, Connie, Judy, Mark and I will miss him greatly. Many of you have called him for advice over the years. Thanks, Dave, and many blessing on you as you continue to follow God’s call.

John Feister
Editor, AmericanCatholic.org