A Patron Saint for the Internet?
by John Bookser Feister

(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.)

Dear Catholic Webmasters:

Q U I C K S C A N

Parish Site of the Month
Worth a Click

Other saints have been offered as Internet patron candidates, including St. Gabriel the Archangel ("instant messenger"), letter-writing St. Catherine of Siena (e-mail), and a man whose last name you have to say aloud, slowly, to get the joke hatched in computer frustration: St. John Damascene.

During this 750th anniversary of the death of St. Clare of Assisi, we would humbly suggest her as patroness of the Internet. She was named patroness of television by Pope Pius XII in 1958 because, on Christmas Eve 1253, on the wall of her cloister room, she saw a vision of the Mass happening across town. The Web, like t.v., is increasingly allowing us to share religious experiences across many miles.

Our own prayer request board at AmericanCatholic.org, for example, now receives more than 6,000 prayer requests per month (we screen them to be sure they are appropriate to post—no last names, e-mail addresses, requests for money, etc.). Our Catholic Greetings e-cards also help people share faith across the Web. No doubt you have examples of your own to share.

Her tenuous connection to t.v. aside, St. Clare is a worthy contender for Internet patroness. Friend of St. Francis and founder of the Poor Clares, she was a woman of remarkable tenacity and love of the Church. She left her noble house to devote her life to prayer, poverty and care for the poor.

She lived during a time of tremendous social change. A new economy was emerging in Europe that was creating a new class of merchants. New ideas were in the air that eventually flowered into the Renaissance. Clare knew that love of the gospel was paramount. She was determined to bring people together in a new way to show how the gospel was to be lived in her day: by remembering the poor and not being swept away by the new wealth.

You can learn more about St. Clare in the August issue of St. Anthony Messenger. Meanwhile, each of us is challenged to consider why we minister on the Internet. Can we, like Clare, resist the glitz and remember to keep the gospel in the forefront? How can we use our Web sites to praise and contemplate God, to bring people together in a new way, to serve the poor? These are the challenges that St. Clare would offer for us.

John Bookser Feister
Editor, AmericanCatholic.org and sister sites

Next month: The 25th Anniversary of John Paul II's Papacy (by Julie Zimmerman)

Parish Site of the Month

St. Andrew the Apostle Parish, Diocese of Phoenix This site provides lots of good features that other parishes may want to emulate. The ministries page is well organized and impressively full; the "neighborhood churches" program, which allows members of this large parish to meet in small groups, has a page where people can find which small group they might wish to join; and the message boards allow Scouts, mothers and others in the parish to ask questions and trade info.

Worth a Click

AN ANNIVERSARY LOOK AT POPE JOHN PAUL II
The Pope's Encyclicals, Homilies and Speeches
The Vatican Web site is the most popular Catholic site on the Web, and as is fitting, its section on Pope John Paul II is exhaustive. With the pope's 25th anniversary coming up in October, there will be much written about his tenure, some of it by fans and some by critics. The Vatican site offers a chance to read what often is overlooked: his own words, both written and spoken, rather than commentary about him. Includes an extensive biography and offers documents in six languages.

THE WORLDWIDE JESUIT WEB
Jesuit Webguide
This page, from the Society of Jesus, places the vast world of Jesuits on the Web at your fingertips—773 sites, to be exact. Because site organization is a perpetual concern of webmasters, it's worth checking out how they've organized their far-flung resources. Using radio buttons, users can narrow their search to subcategories under education, communication, Jesuit offices, and a few others, and even select from six languages. More complicated than you'll probably ever need, but there are some good lessons here.

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