initiatives

My prediction: 2011 will be the year of Social Media for the Catholic Church... at least in the United States.

Let's look at some of the latest developments:

• One of the topics for next week's Fall Assembly of the USCCB is "Integrating new media into diocesan communication structures."
• Blogs, Twitter, and other social media outlets are becoming less derivative and dependent on mainstream media, according to a recent Pew report.
• The USCCB recently released a synthesis of social media best practices in its Social Media Guidelines.
• Catholic websites are slowly beginning to integrate more into social media. Catholic news sites are leading the charge, along with high profile bloggers. Dioceses and larger parishes are joining the parade, albeit slowly and begrudgingly at times.

Sadly, there are still very few diocesan-level social media initiatives, but I think this will quickly change in the coming year. There are also relatively few bishops represented online—this is something that may take longer to happen, but it will happen.

It will be interesting to see what comes of the USCCB's discussions on social media.

On July 1, it looks like two separate Archdioceses made announcements relating to online evangelization:

Archdiocese of St. Louis' new Office of Web Development:

In July of 2010, seeing the need for an increasing presence online and in social media outlets, the Archdiocese of St. Louis has created a new office, the Office of Web Development, to help Archdiocesan agencies, affiliated organizations, and (eventually) parishes with their online development.

The Office of Web Development will work in especially close collaboration with the St. Louis Review and the Office of Communications in making sure news and newsworthy stories are delivered online to as many people as possible.

Read more »

Archdiocese of Boston's New Media & Initiatives group:

BRAINTREE — Embracing new and state-of-the-art forms of digital communication to reach the faithful has been a top priority of Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley.

As part of that effort, effective July 1, the secretariat for Catholic Media will be added to Cardinal O’Malley’s cabinet. Scot Landry, the current secretary for Institutional Advancement, will become the secretary for Catholic Media and oversee all of the archdiocese’s print and digital media including The Pilot’s print edition and its website, CatholicTV, the Boston Catholic Directory, Cardinal O’Malley’s weekly email, the archdiocese’s website, the archdiocese’s new media accounts including Facebook, Twitter and photo sharing.

Read more »

Are there any other dioceses getting started (or already well-established) in these areas?