Massachusetts Boy Makes Good - Again!

National Catholic Reporter's website has reported on the election results for various positions within the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.  The NCCB is meeting in Baltimore MD. 

Among those elected was a local fella, Bishop Christopher Coyne, auxiliary Bishop of Indianapolis.  He has been elected to head the Communications  committee.  He is one of the few bishops who maintains a blog, and regularly uses other social media platforms.

Prior to being named a bishop, Bishop Coyne was a priest for the Archdiocese of Boston.  He became Cardinal Bernard Law's press spokesman, in the midst of the clergy child abuse scandal in Boston.  He handled that assignment well.  I was impressed that he was willing to be available to the media.  Especially being interviewed by Emily Rooney, on Boston's public tv news program.

Part of the New Evangelization is to use all of the new media to reach out to young adults, and youth.  I think that with his experinces, Bishop Coyne should be very effective in this  new position.

An Interview With The CEO Of Canada's Salt & Light Network

The Jesuit magazine, America, has a very interesting interview posted on their website, with Basilian Father Thomas Rosica, who among other responsibilities is the CEO of the Canadian Catholic television network, Salt & Light..  The network has become something of a media power house, with some of it's programming appearing not only in Canada, but in other countries as well.

Several points I took away firm the interview was that for the New Evangelization to succeed, Catholic communications has to play a role in it.  Dioceses need to invest more in their media outlets, not reduce.  That the Church needs to be smarter in using social media, making it way to connect people with substantive content; which will engage their audience both in the head and the heart.  It is a very thought provoking interview.

Civility in the Catholic Blogosphere

American Catholic.Org is carrying a story from the Catholic News Service about a meeting held at the Vatican on Catholic communications, which included what was happening on the World Wide Web. The attending cardinals and media experts were all commenting on the number of so-called "Catholic" websites and blogs that contain a lot of hatred, name calling, fire and brimstone directed not only at the world, but also to fellow Catholics.

I have commented before about the lack of civility in today's society, especially among Christians, Catholics in particular. Is it any surprise that our young people are turned off about the Church, when they see the lack of love, and courtesy in some Catholic blogs, as they surf the Web. What they are looking for is authenticity; they want to see the Gospel being lived.

At this Vatican meeting, there was suggestions about establishing a code of ethics for Catholic bloggers. Some of the participants doubt the effectiveness of such a code. One thing is clear to me, that we need to encourage a more respectful tone, not only in the blogosphere, but also in discussions taking place the living Catholic community. We need live and love as the early Christians did, so that the whole world will recognize us as followers of Christ.