Remember before when I blogged about the Catholic Church not advertising? Well, it seems a Catholic organisation out there called “Catholics Come Home” agrees and has started producing some very nice videos. The following is amazing, it really makes me proud to be a Catholic.

I particularly love the line “For centuries we have prayed for you, and our world, every hour of every day” – I’ve never thought about it but as a collective body the Catholic Church is locked in prayer with God. There are so many of us that at any one point we (as an institution) are praying, which is a really lovely thought.

Labels: media, multimedia, techology

A few weeks ago the new Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, commented on the usage of social networking amongst young people. I deliberately held my tongue in order to see how the debate would pan out. I’ve summarised a few of the best comments from the blogosphere below…

My thoughts

First, it’s great that we have an Archbishop who gets social networking and the Internet. I’ve previously posted about how the Vatican needs to get with the times and update Vatican.va, harnessing the power of the Internet to connect with the millions of Catholics out there. In fact, I think he needs to get more involved by signing up for twitter; it’s really helped ordinary people connect with the PM, why not our spiritual leader in Britain?

Second, it’s clear that Vincent Nichols gets that some young people can be add-crazy on Facebook, adding anyone and anyone who they might know or want to know. There is a culture of “add-like-you’re-mad” in some young people, check out this genuine screenshot of one of my friend’s friends:

He’s simply saying that quantity is no substitute for quality, and he’s right. I have around 100 Facebook friends; around half are old friends from school and family and the other half are people I interact with on a day-to-day basis. I don’t think many people realistically know more people than that. In the example above, the guy has almost 5000 friends. Seriously, how does that work?

Facebook and social networking should be a supplement, not an alternative, to face-to-face communication.

Labels: commentary, techology, vincent-nichols

Seems like everyone who’s anyone is on Facebook these days, even the Blessed Virgin Mary. The social networking service, which claims to have 200 million active users, allows you to become a ‘fan’ of products and services, usually things like Coca-Cola. Some thoughtful user has created a fan page for our Mother Most Holy.

You probably can’t see in the preview image above, but people around the world post to her page with their intentions in the same way we might light a candle at mass. It’s a really lovely use of technology in the twenty-first century. Here’s a few of people’s requests:

• I love you Mary! Pray for us and always keep us close to Jesus.
• Mother Mary I pray for the entire worlds economy and the families who have been effected affected by the crisis.
• I am so glad you are here. You are so gracious to be everywhere for us. Your kindness and grace toward our humanity is tremendous.
• Sub tuum praesidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genetrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

You can click through to view all of the petitions and messages for Our Lady.

She needs your help!

However, it’s not all great. At the start of May, an inconsiderate Facebook user published two images that are clearly offensive to Catholics. The first implies that our Mother Most Pure is some kind of slut and the second suggests that she didn’t have a Virgin Birth.

I really don’t like people who can’t laugh at themselves, sometimes you just have to chuckle at yourself if you’re a Catholic. Try explaining to a Protestant that you effectively eat God in the Eucharist – it’s a pretty funny situation. The thing is, these images aren’t in good taste, they’re just plain offensive and you can’t really laugh at them at all.

If you’re a Catholic Facebook user, please help us rid these images defiling her page. Visit the "Beloved Virgin Mary" fan page and click "just fans" on her wall. Scroll down a bit and you'll find the offending images. Please click on "Report" to notify Facebook, choosing reason "attacks individual or group".

I’ve reported this before but it’s still online. Perhaps Facebook has a massive backlog of abuse cases to sort through and haven’t yet got to this one, or perhaps they just don’t think this image is offensive. I guess the only way to make them listen is if more people report abuse! Please, please, please report this attack on our Mother most Pure if you’re part of the Catholic Facebook community. And while you’re there, become a fan of her… she’s a cool lady.

Labels: bvm, techology

So, this is quite interesting. From The Guardian:

The British Council has asked, with the help of Ipsos MORI, over ten thousand adults across ten countries from China to the USA, just what they think of evolution.

Findings in percent

	Heard of Darwin	Agree evidence exists for evolution	Think it is possible to believe in God and evolution
Argentina	86	44	62
China	90	55	39
Egypt	38	8	45
Great Britain	91	51	54
India	62	38	85
Mexico	91	52	65
Russia	93	39	54
South Africa	27	8	54
Spain	72	39	46
USA	84	33	53

The last column is the Catholic Church’s belief; that God and evolution can coexist. As the figures show, roughly half of the ten-thousand surveyed seem to agree.

You can view the other responses on this Google-hosted spreadsheet

Labels: commentary, techology

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Okay, well perhaps not like that! Watching the clip above in The Simpsons the other day made me question why the Catholic Church doesn’t advertise. Things have changed, attending a Catholic Church is no longer just part of everyday life for many people. Indeed, people can walk past a Catholic Church just like a product on a shelf in a supermarket – unless Catholicism tells people why they should pop in, they’re gonna keep walking past. Companies advertise, perhaps Catholicism should.

What are we selling?

Afterlife insurance. Essentially, we’re marketing your ticket out of here and into heaven.

The problem? So is everyone else in our market. We need to work out what it is that makes Catholicism so special, what makes us different from the Muslims or Hindus… why people should be one of us and not one of them.

Not only that, we face increasing competition from within Christianity itself. The monopoly on Christ has passed and the church needs to deal with it. If people settle on a Christian way of life, what reason is there for them becoming a Catholic? Other denominations offer salvation through Christ at less of a cost. Catholic moral teaching is a lot more restrictive than that of some other Christian groups, for example the Church of England teaches that sex within marriage is an expression of physical love whereas Catholic teaching is that sex is only for procreation. Why should people give up sex for pleasure in order to achieve salvation, when our competitors are offering salvation with sex for pleasure?

The Catholic Church needs to work out why we’re the best and broadcast that to the world.

Atheism

Imagine if someone came along and started running adverts saying, “Actually, you don’t need washing powder… it’s all a sham”. The washing powder companies would be all over it, running adverts telling the public why they do need washing powder. It’s the same with religion, which is coming under fire from the atheists. Indeed, recently they started advertising…

A tarnished reputation

When a product or brand is in trouble, what do they do? They advertise, advertise, advertise. They try to restore people’s confidence in their product. Look at McDonald’s, a few years ago they were facing allegations of making kids obese and causing environmental damage. Even today, their ad campaigns are focused on the ‘healthy’ carrot sticks and responsibly-sourced ingredients that they use. I have to say, I think it’s working – personally, I feel better about eating at McDonald’s now.

Recently, Catholicism has come into disrepute over physical, sexual and emotional abuse claims by the clergy on children. We absolutely should be using advertising to make this right – addressing the issues and answering people’s questions in order to regain trust (and therefore ‘customers’).

Is it right to advertise Catholicism?

For all of the reasons above, I think so. Moreover, other Christian denominations advertise – why shouldn’t we? I’ve always found His Holiness Benedict XVI’s speeches inspiring, but I only know about them because I’m Catholic. If we could get his message to the world through advertising, there’s endless possibilities.

Labels: atheism, multi-faith, multimedia, techology

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Music can be a great tool for getting you in the right frame of mind for prayer. In no particular order, here are four songs that I like. I’ve only used a small section of each song so as not to infringe on anyone’s copyright. If you’d like to buy from iTunes or Amazon there are links to do so.

Bread of Life - Boyce & Stanley

Buy from iTunes

Da pacem cordium - Taizé

Download for free from their site | Buy from iTunes | Buy from Amazon

Pie Jesu - All Angels

Buy from iTunes | Buy from Amazon

Ce matin-là - Air

Buy from iTunes | Buy from Amazon

My favourite of this bunch has to be the All Angels song. Either that or Air. Do you use music for prayer and reflection? If so, what are your favourite songs?

Labels: multimedia, prayer, techology

Every Catholic is familiar with the brown parchment background and tacky image based design – yep, it’s the Vatican online. Evokes a sort of nostalgia in us all, the world was a different place back when this first debuted.

However, whilst it may be familiar it is certainly not suited for purpose, or suited for the twenty-first century. You’re probably wondering why, after over a decade of putting up with the Vatican’s current design, I’m making a point now? Well, it was this image that struck a chord with me…

Go ahead and click the image to visit; it works. It’s a play on the White House’s website after it’s Barack Obama redesign, a good example of web design how it should be done. You’re probably thinking “well, the White House website is for a country!” but let’s face it, Catholicism is like a country. Our capital is Vatican City, our head-of-state is Benedict XVI, our government ministers are the ordained folk and our citizens make up about one-fifth of the world’s population. Don’t forget, as well, that the Vatican exerts an enormous influence politically. When you look at it like that, we’re a much bigger country than the USA yet we have an awful website!

Now, I’m not saying that the Vatican needs to start offering Confessions online, I’m simply saying that we need a website that is fit-for-purpose. The current Vatican website aged quickly – they need a website that will stand the test of time.

Situations

To illustrate this point, let’s consider the following situations…

• I’m a Catholic looking for information about St. Peter’s.
• I’m a prospective Catholic, thinking of converting.
• I’m a person who wants to follow updates.
• I’m completing a project about Catholic attitudes towards euthanasia.

Catholic looking for information about St Peter’s

So, I’m going to the Holy See and want to get some information about St Peter’s Basilica. I hit up Vatican.va and click English. Lucky for me there’s a link on the homepage!

I click on it, and I’m taken to a site titled Basilica Papale di San Pietro – this is despite making the language choice English at the start of your visit. So, I hunt down an English button. The design of the site has completely changed so it takes a while but eventually I find it… It’s in Italian, but recognisable because I’ve studied a romance language.

Turns out, however, that I can’t click on it. There’s no hand, just a text select cursor. Clicking does nothing.

So, I’ve wasted 10 minutes and I’ve not found out anything. Back to the homepage, in the bottom-left hand corner there’s another promising link…

I’m taken to a page that, again, looks different to the rest of the Vatican site and the page on St. Peter’s Basilica I’ve just visited – clear branding issues here. Anyway, there’s a link to St Peter’s but guess what…?

…it doesn’t work! I can’t click it.

Yet more time wasted, I’m leaving the Vatican.va website… I’ll look elsewhere.

I’m a prospective Catholic, thinking of converting

At the moment, I’m non-religious, yet lately I’ve had a growing curiosity about Catholicism and I’d like to find out how I can ‘convert’. The most logical place to start is the Vatican website, I choose English as my language.

For a start, I’m a little confused about the abbreviations “W.Y.D” and “S.V.C” – I know nothing about Catholicism, don’t forget – but I carry on. I can’t see anything on the homepage about converting, so I think I’ll try the “New Search Engine” which has been ‘new’ for about ten years now.

I search for “become Catholic”. The results don’t seem promising. “convert” – no; “join” – no, “baptism” – no. Hmm. What’s going on? Interestingly, the Vatican’s search is powered by Google Search Appliance meaning that it can handle some pretty advanced (normal language) queries. However, because the search box is so small on the homepage, I’m only entering one word queries.

N.B. I know that to become a Catholic, your first port of call should be your local Catholic Church. But this is the twenty-first century… people are workaholics, can they really find time? Not only that, but what if you’re not that into the idea of Catholicism to visit a church yet; you feel that you might be pressurised into joining there and just want to get some information on your terms. And, what if you just don’t know that you should visit a church first? What if you don’t know where your local church is, so you’re visiting the Vatican to find it? The Church of England’s website has a ‘church finder’.

The point here is that there’s no information at all; no page telling you to visit your local church. I’ll look elsewhere.

I want to follow updates

Like many people today, I’ve a feed reader full of interesting news stories and I’d love to have the Pope in there. (Self-promotion: you can put Catholic Flux in your feed reader today by subscribing for free!) What I’d really like is something that allows me to follow the movements of the Holy Father; who he’s meeting, what he’s doing, where he’s going? Number10.gov.uk is really good for this, it lets you see what the PM’s up to in his daily duties. My only complaint is that it’s updated a little too frequently for my liking. But yeah, that’s for a different blog post.

I start my quest at Vatican.va in English, as before. There’s a link on the homepage for Latest Updates, that’s just what I’m looking for!

But, when I get there I’m presented with a list of boring updates. No pictures, no videos… just text. This is despite the Vatican having Photo.va and their own YouTube channel. Not only that, I can’t see the familiar orange feed icon in my title bar or anywhere on the page. I’ll look elsewhere.

I’m completing a project about Catholic attitudes towards euthanasia

In this case, I’ve actually found what I was looking for because I knew what I was looking for – the Catechism of the Catholic Church. I’ve found a passage in there that I’d like to share it with my classmates on Facebook who are having trouble. A share button, like the one to the left hand side of this blog post, would go down a treat. I’ll have to leave the Vatican website, to open Facebook, to give my classmates the link.

What have we learnt from this?

All of the four situations above led to the user ultimately leaving the Vatican site to find their information (or interact with others) elsewhere. You might be wondering what is wrong this? The Vatican.va site should be the most authoritative site on the Internet for Catholicism resources. It’s not good enough to have people searching elsewhere, because anyone could publish anything online and say “this is what the Catholic Church says”.

Moreover, this is the age of the Internet. Get with the times, please, Benedict! It is a great tool for communication, which the Church could really exploit for promoting the message of Christ throughout the world. Alas, they do not.

Unfortunately, I can’t see anything being done about it soon. I think the only thing we can do is pray.

Labels: techology, vatican