mass

One question I'm often asked by many other diocesan web development teams/individuals is how we put together our online Mass Time search (also used for searching adoration and reconciliation times). We also get questions about how we do our online mapping—but I've already covered that (see: Beautiful, Easy Maps in Drupal using Views and Mapstraction).

The Archdiocesan Mass Times search interface (click to enlarge)

We already have a database provided by the Archdiocesan IT department (they maintain it with the help of our diocesan Parish Support staff, and parish secretaries who can update their own schedules and information), so we needed to do the following on the web:

• Import all the Sacrament time information and attach it to a parish node (so times/days could be affiliated with parishes).
• Display the time information on parish node pages, in a meaningful way.
• Allow users to search by Sacrament times, showing parishes on a map, and showing the Sacrament times in a list under the map.

I'll cover each of these important aspects of our website's functionality below.

Preliminary note: much of this code was provided originally by the great folks at Palantir, who helped us set up this and many other features on the Archdiocesan website...

Importing time information, attaching it to Parish nodes

The first step in the process is importing some 3,000+ parish event nodes (which contain data for each 'event' - the event time, the event type (Mass/Reconciliation/Adoration), whether the event is a 'Normal Service' or a special kind of Mass, the location of the event (often in a side chapel or somewhere else), the event day, and the reference for the parish to which the event is attached.

Our site uses the Migrate module to import all the data, and we have the module set up to import all the events first, then import the Parishes, attaching the events to parishes (through custom code) using a node reference. Continue Reading »

As seen on WDTPRS earlier today (and quoted from the AP—Fr. Z's comments in bold):

ROME — An Italian priest has developed an iPad application that will let priests celebrate Mass with an iPad on the altar instead of the regular Roman missal.

The Rev. Paolo Padrini, a consultant with the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Social Communications, said Friday that the free application will be launched in July in English, French, Spanish, Italian and Latin. [In this case, I hope it will be complete. I found iBreviary to be… sub-optimal.]

Two years ago, Padrini developed the iBreviary, an application that brought the book of daily prayers used by priests onto iPhones. He said the iPad application is similar but also contains the complete missal — containing all that is said and sung during Mass throughout the liturgical year. [Since the Missal is less complicated, perhaps it will be complete. However…. will it be only the 2002 Missale Romanum? And what to do, for English, about the translation? Other languages have already updated their translations.]

Pope Benedict XVI has sought to reach out to young people through new media.

Thoughts? On first reading this, I was a little distressed... but thinking more about this, I wonder if this is not an altogether bad idea. At first, for traveling priests, this would be a godsend. Carrying around a Roman Missal is a major chore (I know, because I had to do this for a while in the Seminary). And, as time goes on, and these devices become less of an obtrusive piece of technology, and more ingrained with how we consume and display content, would they be more acceptable in this kind of setting?

I think two things would have to happen before it would be acceptable to use an iPad-like device during a Sacred Liturgy:

1. An appropriate case would need to be manufactured to (a) mask the logo on the back, and (b) downplay the fact that a bit of electronic technology is being used. Something simple; perhaps a nice red leather case? (Definitely not a gaudy gold 'bling' cover like I see at some parishes, with a happy Jesus on the front).
2. The screens on the devices will need to be improved, and able to operate without backlighting. Seeing someone in a relatively dim room with an iPad, iPhone or laptop is distracting, due to the blueish glow on their faces. Advancements in e-ink and related technologies could get us there, sometime in the next few years.

What do you think? Should this be (for now) relegated to private Masses? Should it be allowed at all?