Celebrating 10 Years on the Web
by John 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.)

Q U I C K S C A N

Parish Site of the Month
Worth a Click

Bear with me for a moment of nostalgia. In the summer of 1995, when a small group of us here at St. Anthony Messenger Press started talking about how important the World Wide Web would become for Church communication, few people listened. Luckily, one of them was Father Jeremy Harrington, O.F.M., our publisher. He agreed to launch an inquiry with a group of people from various departments in our small company who would guide our next steps. That Internet Committee had a number of discussions that fall, and decided that a Web site was a good idea and that it should be called AmericanCatholic.org. Why the name? Many names were discussed, but the alphabet ruled the day—at that early “pre-Google” time a name that started with “A” would show up first on search pages!

Our founding principle was simple: Our print publications like St. Anthony Messenger, which had just celebrated 100 years in 1993, and Catholic Update, used in about one third of U.S. parishes, sought to reach people at home and at Church, to enliven and deepen their experience of the Catholic faith. The parish bulletin, our beloved late editor Father Norman Perry used to say, is the most widely read publication in the Catholic press. Our instinct was, and is, that the parish Web site will gradually stand next to the bulletin as a critical tool for parish communication. Ten years later, we’ve a long way to go, but I think we can say we got onto the right track.

From the earliest days, starting with the launch of our “pet blessing feature” for St. Francis Day in 1996, we sought to provide features for parish Web sites. Our parish Webmaster’s section developed over the years as a place to pick up all manner of attractive links for solid, mainstream Catholic pastoral content.

So, help us celebrate 10 years, starting in October, by renewing your own commitment to provide a solid, well-kept service for parishioners coming to your Web sites. We’ll honor the decade by continuing to provide timely, solid content for Catholic webmasters.

Speaking of which! Our 10th Annual Pet Blessing feature is in place, and we have our largest listing ever of pet blessings to honor the October 4 Feast of St. Francis. Put a link on your site, and tell us if you know of pet blessings coming up in your area in the next few weeks.

Relief for victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita will be a long-term effort. A link to our news feature will allow your Web visitors to learn the latest news from the devastated dioceses, and from those who are providing relief, as well a Catholic agencies that are accepting donations. During an Internet chat among Catholic communicators last week, it became clear that the loving support of parishioners around the country—prayer and encouragement as well as financial support—is a big deal to those struggling with such a massive disaster.

Peace be with you!

John Feister
Editor, AmericanCatholic.org

Parish Site of the Month

St. Juliana Parish (Archdiocese of Chicago)
This neatly designed Web site has timely content on the homepage, an archive of bulletins in .pdf format and impressive Internet tools worth seeing. Faculty at the parish school can keep in touch with parents via blog. (Each teacher has a page, and some have posted pictures and upcoming lessons.) Also, the site utilizes a customized "Page Not Found" page that redirects users who become lost while navigating the site's contents. (This is especially useful in recently redesigned sites if people are accustomed to linking to pages that no longer exist.) Be sure to check out the site's calendar that features JavaScript pop-up windows with details on listed events and allows you to perform a keyword search.

Worth a Click

Catholic Colleges Online
High school students (and their parents) can find a wealth of helpful information whether they are just beginning the college search or have already decided on (and perhaps applied to) their schools of choice. The National Catholic College Admission Association offers information on courses and standardized tests that college-bound teens should take in high school, tips for applying for financial aid and online financial aid resources, facts about Catholic colleges and questions to consider during the college-selection process. While visiting this site, learn how Catholic colleges are helping victims of Katrina by offering assistance to students displaced by the hurricane.

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