After reading this article from the CNS about a Massachusetts parish's use of its website, YouTube, Facebook, etc., it seems like they would be a good example of what to emulate in other parishes.

Father Longe and parishioner Timothy Hourihan believe in taking the message of Jesus to new people in new ways. Specifically, during the past year they initiated many forms of electronic evangelization to attract more people to the faith.

Since April 2009, the parish YouTube site has had more than 20,000 views of its home-produced videos. The men have created a church blog, Facebook site and Twitter account, and have homilies, songs and prayers available for free downloads on iTunes.

The electronic offerings from the parish are a mix of education and entertainment. For example, one popular YouTube video involved Father Longe just standing in front of the parish statue of Mary and talking about the mother of Jesus.

Another video features Father Brian F. McGrath, St. Mary's pastor, cooking an Italian meal. The show follows him from the rectory garden to the kitchen to the dinner table.

It's not just about the technologies—it's about how interested a parish actually is in using those technologies. It seems like Fr. McGrath (the pastor of St. Mary's) is being very helpful in this regard, encouraging parishioners to help him promote the parish online.

I think more parishes will take this approach in the coming years (especially those with younger parishioners).

Here's the St. Mary's parish website; one thing I wish more parishes (including St. Mary's) would do is use a better content management system/strategy so they could wrap all their online offerings in one consistent website, rather than having a link to an offsite blog, a link to YouTube, a link to Facebook, etc...