Revision of Now I'm Crying... from Tue, 12/22/2009 - 6:52pm
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Well... after a few more minutes mourning the pitiful state of the website that would make the baby Jesus cry, I decided to take a glance at all the parish websites linked to from the upgraded archstl.org (to go live in just a few weeks—more to come!).
I was horrified.
Like I said in an earlier post, the state of Catholic parishes on the web is abysmal. Hopefully that's not a revelation to you. I also posted on what makes a good parish website. These two posts are barely fleshed out, but hopefully have a lot of good pointers for parishes looking to join the 21st century on the Internet.
I am going to eat a little of my own cake, as I'm working on a couple sample parish websites to see if I can (a) make an awesome example website, and (b) set up a Drupal install profile, or at least a set of features/guidelines that others can download and/or emulate on their own parish sites. More to come, for sure.
For now, try to not cry when you view another parish website that basically has a <blink> tag, a link to a PDF of the bulletin, and a collage picture of every student in the school. Don't fret when you can't find mass information, or an address, in less than 5 minutes—we wouldn't want to make things easy, would we?
Comments
Another note: I really, really, really really REALLY wish more of the Church would catch on to the urgency of Pope John Paul II's (and now Pope Benedict XVI's) call to the new evangelization using new forms of communication... like the Internet.
Cost, unfortunately, hinders many, in this area. What is your Archdiocese, the USCCB, heck, even the Vatican, doing to support the small parishes and Catholic organizations who struggle to survive, much less have an effective channel for communications on the web?
Advancing the faith.
I think this applies to many diocesan websites as well.... not St. Louis of course :) Although everybody likes to talk about "the new evangelization," clearly there are very few within the church willing to make the investment. To some, internet is a buzz word that results in an action item being "find some high schooler to throw something together."
The reason I get so bent out of shape (and we've got a ton of these examples in my Archdiocese) is that this is the Church of Michelangelo, Raphael, Mozart and so many incredible gifted artists and we need to Glorify Our Lord as they did.
Now...to slightly take the topic in a new direction...a challenge. Can you folks start posting sites that are at least somewhat decent.
Here's one for an inner-city Church in Minneapolis: http://saintolaf.org/
Here's one that's pretty simple, but clean and effective: http://www.churchofsaintpaul.com/
Here's one built on Joomla: http://www.mary.org/
Any others?
One of the most interesting things, in my mind, is how the idea of not putting money and good research/skill into website design seems to coincide with a time in the Church when architecture, music, and arts are also at an all-time low. I'm sure that even the early Church tried to make everything beautiful and vibrant for the Lord. Nowadays, with the drab and plain ugly Churches being built (or not) around the country and around the world, it's no wonder nobody cares about having a beautiful, functional and helpful website.
Lack of enthusiasm is part of the problem, but perhaps this stems from a greater lack of enthusiasm for the arts. Helping the poor is good and just, but advancing mankind's ability to think, create, and use his skills to make the world a more beautiful place (online and off) is another worthy task.
Advancing the faith.
My dear brother in Christ, there is a direct link between the Church building and the Church body in comparison to the look and feel of a Church. A Church body that is faith filled will build the largest, best ornate Church building while the Church body that is lacking in faith will build Church buildings that suit themselves not the God Man that is Jesus the Christ.
I'm just glad I don't see my website in the collage of Ugly sites! LOL!
:-)
Ha-ha : )
"I'm a PC (practicing Catholic) and I'm only 30 years old."
Here are a couple local Catholic Universities with nice sites...
http://www.stthomas.edu/
http://www.stkate.edu/
Nice. Is it possible to have a wallpaper with this picture? I'm looking for a new one at my job.
Great website by the way.
BIG BROTHER
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