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1001 - Religious Internet Communication. Facts, Trends & Experiences in The Catholic Church - Lorenzo Cantonim, EDUSC
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Religious Internet
Communication
Facts, Experiences and Trends
in the Catholic Church
edusc
© Copyright 2010 - EDUSC srl
Via dei Pianellari, 41 - 00186 Rome
Tel. 0645493637 - Fax 0645493641
E-mail: info@edusc.it
ISBN 978-88-8333-203-6
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
Heidi Campbell.........................................................................................9
PART I. Framework
Table of contents
4.2. Challenges.................................................................................. 76
5. Visitors (WCM’s Pillar IV).............................................................. 81
5.1. Users.......................................................................................... 81
5.2. Target Users............................................................................... 82
6. Conclusions..................................................................................... 83
Table of contents
B. Media.................................................................................................. 201
B.1. Vatican Radio (Federico Lombardi and Pietro Cocco)................ 203
B.2. EWTN - Eternal Word Television Network (Jeff Burson
and Michelle Johnson)................................................................... 209
B.3. The Southern Cross - Newspaper (Michail Rassool)....................... 214
B.4. Zenit - News Agency (Jesús Colina).............................................. 220
B.5. Our Sunday Visitor - Publishing Company (Greg Erlandson)........ 226
B.6. Catholic.net - Internet Portal (Lucrecia Rego de Planas).............. 232
Concluding Remarks
Daniel Arasa, Lorenzo Cantoni and Lucio A. Ruiz.............................. 239
References............................................................................................. 243
Preface
Preface
10
Preface
Faith in the Internet Age (2002) analyze how contemporary media cul-
ture is shaping Church discussions of evangelism and religious educa-
tion and the theological implications of these trajectories for traditional
practice. Catholic online developments have also led to reflection on
impact the Internet on Church and society at the larger institutional
level. The Pontifical Council for Social Communications has issued a
number of statements that point towards the Church’s concern about
how media technologies may encourage or inhibit issues of social in-
equity, intercultural dialogue and freedoms of expression (“Ethics in
Internet”, 2002). Also “The Church and the Internet” (2002), charge
Catholics to “use the Internet well”, as “tool for accomplishing use-
ful work” and for “the international common good” further stressing
the Catholic social justice tradition that believes media should be em-
ployed to benefit humanity. By considering these conversations in light
of the data presented in this book, researchers and readers are offered a
reservoir of possible sources for further exploring Catholic ethical and
theological concerns. The book sets the stage for a detailed case study
of how one particular religious community’s philosophy of communi-
cation may directly shapes their new media usage.
To this end I believe Religious Internet Communication, Facts, ex-
periences and trends in the Catholic Church provides valuable data and
resources for exploring in greater depth Catholic communities and
organizations use of Internet technology for its communication and
ministries.
Heidi Campbell
Assistant Professor of Communication
Texas A&M University
11
Part I
Framework
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etc. Nonetheless, many times the research approach has been mixed
with a more practical oriented goal, in order to offer practitioners in
the field both theoretical frameworks and practical guidelines.
In April 2002, a MIT Communication Forum was devoted to
Religion and the Internet, stressing that “Religious Web sites have
received little academic attention” (MIT Communications Forum
2002). Although several studies have been devoted to that subject
since then, there is still a need – this is the editors’ belief – for more
research, clearly aimed at scientifically studying and interpreting the
concerned field. Moreover, it seems important to bridge the space
between general academic research, and research conducted in con-
fessional contexts: while it is obvious that scientific research has to
meet the same general methodological requirements and standards,
researchers in the first group should further include religious online
communication among their research scope – in fact, as it will be
extensively shown in this book, its size and importance cannot be
overestimated –, while researchers in the second group should gather
more quantitative data, and better distinguish between different levels
of discourse (describing, interpreting, giving suggestions and guide-
lines, prescribing). This bridging should promote a more intense and
fruitful dialogue among researchers, which will be beneficial both to
better understand and interpret online religious communication, as
well as to better design it.
The above distinction does not imply any naive division between
non-believing researchers and believing ones: academic research has
been done and is being done by people belonging to every religion
and confession as well as by non-believers; but sometimes people
tend to think that non-believers are more entitled to do research in
this area. Massimo Introvigne (2007) reports – in a review of the
book Discovering God, by Rodney Stark (2007) – an interesting “par-
able” said to him by Stark. Think of a world in which people who fear
flying, who never flew and who believe that people who use aircrafts
are crazy, themselves do write books on flight and aircrafts. Wouldn’t
it be strange? In the field of sociology of religion we witness some-
thing similar...
In this context and with the above mentioned goals in mind, the
book you have in hands wants to offer a quite comprehensive view
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Chapter 1. Internet and the Catholic Church: A Map and a Research Agenda
2. A Map
Contest
Adresser Message addressee
Contact
Code
To avoid redundancies, from now on, the term ”Church” without any further
specification will refer to the Roman Catholic Church.
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Chapter 1. Internet and the Catholic Church: A Map and a Research Agenda
does depend both on its nature and on the world it belongs to,
where other competitors are working as well. As it happens for
stock quotes, the exact value of each single item is due also to a
complex market/social negotiation (Cantoni & Tardini 2006,
99-100).
Figure 2.
The WCM (Cantoni & Tardini 2006, 100)
EVALUATION
PROJECT
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the map itself and how they can help in sketching a consistent picture
of the same subject.
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Chapter 1. Internet and the Catholic Church: A Map and a Research Agenda
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Chapter 1. Internet and the Catholic Church: A Map and a Research Agenda
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munication; here, in fact, the issue is not about the media technologies
themselves, but about their diffusion and adoption in a given informa-
tion and communication market.
1. Coevolution and coexistence. “All forms of communication are
[...] tightly woven into the fabric of human communication system and
cannot exist independently from one another in our culture. As each
new form emerges and develops, it influences, over time and to varying
degrees, the development of every other existing form. Coevolution
and coexistence, rather than sequential evolution and replacement,
have been the norm since the first organisms made their debut on the
planet” (Fidler 1997, 23-24). As it is clearly shown by all cases pre-
sented in this book about Catholic media, they have not discontinued
previous publishing forms, rather, they have adopted new technologies
to support them (e.g., digital production in a radio or in a publishing
company) and to extend their reach and enlarge their features. Audio
and video media, for instance, are getting a new persistency through
their websites and podcasting services.
2. Metamorphosis and 3. Propagation are also present in cases,
showing significant efforts to find the right and win-win equilibrium
among different communication media, as well as to meet changing
user requirements and “media diets”.
4. Survival. All surveyed organizations are showing a significant
commitment to adopt – at different extents – ICT and to implement
them in their media offer.
5. Opportunity and need. Changing expectations on the audience
side are calling for new and different media offers, and a favorable
context is offering relevant chances to enter the new media world. In
particular, the chapter on internet communication in religious institu-
tions (chapter four) shows clearly that adoption of ICT is closely con-
nected with real needs to better accomplish one institution’s specific
goals, and not – as it could be supposed – with age of its members or
other subjective factors.
6. Delayed adoption. While we perceive a significant acceleration in
the media market, in many cases, in fact, different stages coexist, and
the effective usage of certain channels/services is far from reaching its
maximum possible reach. Data about actual usages, as we will see later
on, are of the utmost importance to measure this aspect.
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Chapter 1. Internet and the Catholic Church: A Map and a Research Agenda
In this paragraph, two relevant areas are covered: (a) the view of
the Church itself about online communication, and (b) the character-
istics an innovation should have (in our case, new media) to get higher
chances of adoption and acceptance in relationship with the Church.
Not only scholars have studied and are studying these issues – let
us say, from an ‘external’ point of view – but also inside religious com-
munities the issue of dealing with ICT and the internet has been and
is being debated, adopting – to say so – an ‘internal’ approach (Hipps
2005; Careaga 1999 and 2001). In the Christian Catholic Church
many authors have debated if and how to use ICT and the internet,
asking how the religious mission could be supported (or hindered) by
new technologies (Arasa 2008; Carroggio & La Porte 2002; Stenico
2001, just to mention a few of them).
A further step in this direction has been taken by the Church her-
self, whose Pontifical Council for Social Communications published
a document titled Church and the Internet (PCSC 2002) and a second
one titled Ethics in Internet (PCSC 2002a). In both documents a clear
invitation toward a use – a sound one – of ICT and the internet has
been done and repeated. While a detailed presentation of this ‘internal’
approach is clearly beyond the scope of this chapter, a few quotations
will help to understand the kind of commitment – or internal sponsor-
ing – online communication is enjoying inside the Church, as well as
the caveats stressed by the same documents.
At the very beginning of Church and the Internet, the document
states a positive approach to new media and the internet:
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Chapter 1. Internet and the Catholic Church: A Map and a Research Agenda
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Chapter 1. Internet and the Catholic Church: A Map and a Research Agenda
tion and acceptance belongs to this layer as well as to the following one,
involving both senders and receivers, who have to decide whether or not
to use online communication, how and up to which extent. While this
issue can be dealt with by different approaches (Succi & Cantoni 2008),
in the following lines the main characteristics an innovation should have
in order to be adopted are introduced, following the proposal by Rogers
(1995, 15-17) as integrated by Fidler (1997, 13-17).
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ticular, while compatibility has been ensured and clarified by the of-
ficial documents, relative advantage and observability call for a realistic
analysis of pros and cons of given online communication activities/strat-
egies. If sometimes naive technophiles who “gaze on technology as a
lover does on his beloved” (Postman 1993, 5) think that technologies
are always an added value in themselves, actual and extensive experi-
ences – trialability – are needed to provide evidence of it in different
contexts. For instance, the advantages of managing a parish website
are to be clearly demonstrated, both in respect to the resources needed
and in respect to the actual interest of the intended audience. Here
again we face the issue of “literary genres” (first pillar in the WCM)
and the issue of studying actual interests and usages on the addressees’
side (fourth pillar).
Data on managers of online communication are presented in this
book in the chapter about the online presence of dioceses, through
interviews with their webmasters, as well as in the chapter about in-
ternet communication in religious institutions. Also cases present how
internal work is organized and – for some of them – also the educa-
tional/professional background of their operators.
While it is not at all possible to generalize, it seems that there is a
relevant room for improvement in this area. Providing fresh and reli-
able data, as well as thoughtful analyses, could help in this direction
– as we editors believe, and hope to offer through this book. Important
steps could be represented not only by dedicated education and train-
ing activities (many important experiences have already been done),
but also by a diffused media education, which could better equip the
clergy and laypeople to operate in the so-called information and com-
munication society (Stout 2006a). Among the areas where there is a
significant room for improvement on the online communication man-
agers’ side – yielding to a higher maturity level –, we can enlist the
study of actual users and of their usages. Let us now move to this level
of analysis.
2.4. Users/Clients
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Chapter 1. Internet and the Catholic Church: A Map and a Research Agenda
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Nowadays the field itself is too young to allow for many conclu-
sions on that. Only quantitative research – and reliable data offered by
the involved players – will help draw some tentative conclusions and
define key performance indicators for the different areas of Church
online communication. Every case in the second section of the book
will contribute quali-quantitative data about websites’ visitors.
Beside a better quantification of the involved audiences, their seg-
mentation is also needed. If online communication is technically open
to everybody, this does not imply that it is addressed to everybody; al-
most no message can be addressed to anybody, due to its language, style,
genre, cultural background and so on. Online Church communication
has still to clarify its different publics. While they can be segmented
according to languages and culture – the Catholic Church has shown
along her history a great capacity of intercultural communication and
integration –, other criteria can be used for this differentiation. In par-
ticular, let us consider the following three dimensions: (I) personal be-
lieving/belonging, (II) online practices, with (IIa) the special case of
media professionals, and (III) technological skills and equipment.
(I) Personal believing/belonging. This first criterion can envisage
three different audiences, depending on their degree of belonging to the
Church or to a specific organization (dioceses, parish, association, etc.).
According to Mayer, there are the “practicing believers, happy to stay in
websites they are attuned with” (Mayer 2008, 57); then, there is “a public
of people who did not cut relationships with their Church, but not very
engaged, or who ask themselves about certain aspects of their faith” (Mayer
2008, 57); the third public is made of “people who never were members or
who are completely far from the Church” (Mayer 2008, 57-58).
(II) Online practices. Another segmentation takes into consider-
ation the different online activities one can do when visiting a religious
website. According to Hoover, Schofield Clark & Rainie (2004) there
are three main categories, namely:
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Chapter 1. Internet and the Catholic Church: A Map and a Research Agenda
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Chapter 1. Internet and the Catholic Church: A Map and a Research Agenda
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Chapter 1. Internet and the Catholic Church: A Map and a Research Agenda
Some studies have unveiled the fact that the religious web is not at
all a niche for a few amateurs; on the contrary, it attracts huge numbers
of interested visitors. In 2001, according to the Pew Internet Project
(Larsen 2001),
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Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project Religion Surfers Survey,
July 24-August 15, 2001. N=500 and margin of error is ±4%
Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project Nov. 18- Dec. 14, 2003.
N=1,358 Internet users. Margin of error is ±3%
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Chapter 1. Internet and the Catholic Church: A Map and a Research Agenda
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Chapter 1. Internet and the Catholic Church: A Map and a Research Agenda
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the needs and goals, the expectations, the education and the previ-
ous and similar experiences of both publishers and users are all to be
considered (Cantoni & Tardini 2006, 130).
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Part II
In-depth Studies
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Catholics are 62.8% of the total population in America, 40% in Europe, 26.3%
in Oceania, 17.1% in Africa and 3% in Asia. Worldwide, the Catholic Church counts
with 4,898 bishops; 407,262 priests; 34,520 permanent deacons; 55,107 lay men reli-
gious; 753,400 professed religious women; 28,041 members of secular institutes; and
216,768 lay missionaries. Data retrieved from the Statistical Yearbook of the Church
(2008).
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Chapter 2. Diocesan Websites. What Can We Learn From the Largest Dioceses?
dia. Steps forward are also being taken to further integrate the internet
into Church communications.
This chapter analyzes diocesan websites as tools for the Church’s
institutional communications activities. The first logical question is
to ask what the Catholic Church’s institutional communications ac-
tivities are. As a matter of fact, almost any activity of communication
carried out by the Church has an institutional dimension. Cateche-
sis, preaching and liturgical celebrations are all Church’s institutional
communication activities as well as diplomacy, artistic and cultural
exhibitions, and ecumenical initiatives are. Following an accurate
analysis of the official documents on communications, the Church’s
institutional communications activities can be grouped in five main
areas: 1) media promotion; 2) media relations; 3) media education; 4)
pastoral care of media professionals; and 5) internal communications.
For the sake of truth, the Church’s documents on communications do
not present specifically this division. It responds to the communication
activities described in those documents and carried out by responsible
for Church communications at different organizational levels (interna-
tional, national and local). Within these general activities, every Cath-
olic organization develops autonomous institutional communications
according to the peculiarities of its resources, charisma and internal
organization.
In principle, the institutional communications activities carried out
by diocesan websites should be consistent with the goals of the univer-
sal Catholic Church; they are at the service of presenting the Church’s
message to people and offering the faithful the means for their spiritual
growth. However, the use of websites for institutional communications
is not the same among Catholic dioceses in different parts of the world
because of the specific circumstances of each diocese. While the five
main activities of institutional communications are identical, differ-
ent websites present their contents and services differently and, thus,
the specific institutional communications activities vary. For example,
dioceses with a minority of Catholics include features in their websites
which are not present in other diocesan websites.
It is not possible to talk about high quality communication if there
is not an understanding of one’s own identity (who we are) and objec-
tives (with whom we want to speak, why and about what). That aware-
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ness is the basis for the agreement between what an institution is and
what it says. Diocesan websites make their local churches present on
the World Wide Web while trying to respect the human and divine
nature of the institution worldwide. Certainly, the fact that the leaders
know what the institution is and needs to say does not imply that they
know how to say it. This is where this research may help.
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Chapter 2. Diocesan Websites. What Can We Learn From the Largest Dioceses?
oceses by continent: three from Latin America, two from Europe, and
one from North America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. Table 3 includes
the name of the nine dioceses selected, the number of Catholic faithful
and the URL of their website.
Table 3.
Number of Catholics and URL of the selected dioceses
Number of
Diocese (Country) URL
Faithful (2006)
Bogotá (Colombia) 3,525,716 www.arquidiocesisbogota.org.co
Johannesburg
704,000 www.catholic-johannesburg.org.za
(South Africa)
Los Angeles (USA) 4,349,267 www.archdiocese.la
Madrid (Spain) 3,420,000 www.archimadrid.es
Manila (Philippines) 2,719,781 www.rcam.org
Melbourne (Australia) 1,029,256 www.melbourne.catholic.org.au
Mexico City (Mexico) 7,103,000 www.arzobispadomexico.org.mx
Milan (Italy) 4,844,138 www.chiesadimilano.it
São Paulo (Brazil) 5,154,347 www.arquidiocesedesaopaulo.org.br
Total 32,849,505
Source: Annuario Pontificio 2006
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Chapter 2. Diocesan Websites. What Can We Learn From the Largest Dioceses?
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goals and identity. Indeed, the four website elements have to be stud-
ied in their mutual interactions because they are not autonomous but
need each other to exist. Moreover, the website needs to be studied as
it relates to its surroundings because the website and its elements get
meaning and value only in a given context (in our case, other Church
and diocesan websites).
The WCM is a model for website analysis from which many dif-
ferent approaches to website activities may be developed. Being com-
prehensive, the WCM is a useful tool in evaluating the quality of a
site’s communications and may also help to avoid misunderstandings
between a website’s promoters and developers.
In order to see how the WCM applies to diocesan websites, let us
start with the presentation of their main contents and services, that is,
the pillar I of the model.
The quality of a website is, first of all, the quality of its content and
services. Content and services are what visitors look for, what webmas-
ters work for, and what technical instruments are employed for. And this
is even clearer in the case of a Catholic institution as a diocese. The level
of user’s satisfaction will be directly affected by the website’s content.
The description of content and services does not require a thor-
ough examination of all the individual units of a website. In fact, many
diocesan websites offer thousands of links and documents that would
be impossible to proofread. Moreover, many of them change constant-
ly. In analyzing a website, it is more important to know the different
types of content and services. Hence, the selection offered here comes
from the observation and testing of different types of websites’ con-
tents and services. It is based upon some existing sites and serves as
an analysis of their current communication level, as well as a basis for
future website projects. The contents and services of diocesan websites
may be grouped in 20 main categories (presented here in alphabetical
order): 1) Arts & Culture; 2) Bishop; 3) Books & Publications; 4) Ca-
thedral; 5) Catholic Information Service (CIS): Permanent and Variable
Information; 6) Copyright & Privacy; 7) Devotion, Liturgy & Prayers; 8)
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Chapter 2. Diocesan Websites. What Can We Learn From the Largest Dioceses?
Email Service; 9) Employment; 10) External Links; 11) Forum & Guest-
book; 12) Identity & History; 13) Intranet & Reserved Areas; 14) Lan-
guages; 15) Marriage; 16) Mass Media; 17) Newsletter; 18) Search Form,
Search Engine & Site Map; 19) Spiritual Assistance & Solidarity; and 20)
Vocations & Seminary.
This list is certainly adaptable to many situations. In this case, it
serves to understand some content and services that are usually present
on diocesan websites, independent of their geographical and cultural
environment. In the following paragraphs we will offer some reflec-
tions on each one of these contents and services.
2. Bishop
All diocesan websites include a more or less extensive section devoted
to the main authority of the diocese, i.e. the bishop. In most cases, web-
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4. Cathedral
As in the bishop’s section, most of the diocesan websites offer
great amounts of information on the cathedral. The cathedral is a sym-
bolic building that identifies the diocese and, in fact, the cathedral’s
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Chapter 2. Diocesan Websites. What Can We Learn From the Largest Dioceses?
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Chapter 2. Diocesan Websites. What Can We Learn From the Largest Dioceses?
a.4.- Education:
All the diocesan websites include references to Catholic educa-
tion. While some websites focus more on theological studies
(university level), other websites are more interested in pro-
moting education for youth (Catholic schools).
Education is an area of possible website improvement in which
the local church can have a positive influence on society. Three
specific areas are: a) Religious education: catechesis, moral is-
sues, etc.; b) Civil education: for example, through the diffu-
sion of the Church’s social doctrine, which provides a back-
ground for educating citizens about respecting and promoting
the common good, respect for human life, defense of the
environment, personal responsibility in the exercise of rights
and duties and participation in public life (voting, etc.); and c)
Professional education: without substituting other public and
private entities, organizations related to the Church may assist
professional education and training at many different levels (for
example, basics of home economy like family budget, cooking,
shopping, social assistance contracts, etc.). Often these activi-
ties will not be offered by the diocese itself, but by parishes,
charities, NGOs and other similar organizations, and can be
promoted through the diocesan website.
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b.1.- News:
Many websites include current or past news as well as opinion
articles, though there are large differences among them. Un-
fortunately, it is common to many the confusion between an-
nouncements of events (ideally included in a calendar section)
and summaries of such events.
Usually webmasters do not have the time to update the news
or to archive old news. Most websites almost exclusively rely
on employees from different departments to fill the website’s
content. With exceptions, in many cases this shows evidence
of lacking trained personnel to write and upload news on their
websites. The lack of professionals of communications makes
that some “News” sections refer more to topics of interest for
potential visitors than to real news.
In spite of the difficulties, and depending on the human re-
sources, diocesan websites can be a point of reference for Cath-
olics and non-Catholics on news about the local and universal
Church.
b.2.- Calendar:
Very few diocesan websites have a clear and updated calendar;
in most cases, they include similar features dispersed through-
out many different areas. Moreover, in many cases it is difficult
to distinguish between news and calendar of activities.
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Chapter 2. Diocesan Websites. What Can We Learn From the Largest Dioceses?
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8. Email Service
Used properly, the email service may save an organization’s time
and money. For dioceses, many announcements or other information
could be sent to parish priests via email, saving postal fares as well as
trips of the priests to the diocesan headquarters.
However, diocesan webmasters complain that parish priests do
not follow the level of “internetization” of the diocese and recognize
some reticence among parish priests towards the use of email (under-
standable because of age, lack of time, resources, etc.). In this sense,
dioceses may consider support parishes at two levels: supplying them
with the minimal technical requirements and, most importantly, with
training. In this case, the figure of “web animator” created by the Ital-
ian bishop’s conference is an outstanding example.
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Chapter 2. Diocesan Websites. What Can We Learn From the Largest Dioceses?
9. Employment
Many regular visitors to diocesan websites are committed Catho-
lics. The diocese may take advantage of having this audience at hand
to find people who could work for the diocese itself and, at the same
time, understand and agree with its mission and goals. Diocesan web-
sites could also put people in contact with organizations related to the
diocese (schools, hospitals, social services, etc.) for employment pur-
poses.
When announcing job positions in diocesan structures through
the website (schools, parishes, NGOs, etc.), it is very important to
clarify the requirements that the candidates need to fulfill in order to
obtain the job as well as the employer’s expectations.
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Chapter 2. Diocesan Websites. What Can We Learn From the Largest Dioceses?
14. Languages
There are mainly three categories of sites regarding language: a)
websites using a unique language; b) websites using a predominant
language and a secondary language (or languages); c) websites using a
main language with a sporadic use of other languages. In general, very
little content is presented in the secondary languages.
Promoters of diocesan websites have their geographic environ-
ment in mind. Websites are mostly written in the local language of the
diocese, since their target, and most of their users, are local residents.
Nonetheless, translating some important contents into English seems
advisable like, for example, the bishop’s biography, lists of Quick Facts
and particular statements that may be of interest beyond the geograph-
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ical limits of the diocese. It may require additional effort and resources,
but helping external visitors to consult information in a universal lan-
guage could be profitable for both the diocese and the user. A general
overlook of the back links also permits to find out that, besides the lo-
cal language, English is the language used most by the websites linking
to diocesan websites. In any case, non-English websites do not usually
include significant information in English. Webmasters are not con-
cerned about it, maybe because they are aware that most of the users
are local visitors. What is probably true is that it might be unnecessary
and burdensome for many dioceses to translate the entire site.
15. Marriage
Many diocesan websites show a pastoral approach and offer useful
articles and other information for marriage preparation and material for
the wedding ceremony (for example, the ‘Book of Marriage’, with an
explanation of the rite, by the website of Milan, Italy). Other sites are
certainly interested in explaining the doctrine of the Church regarding
marriage and responding to administrative issues on marriage annul-
ment; nevertheless, they provide so much information on the process of
annulment of marriage that it might be interpreted as promoting it.
17. Newsletter
Most websites do not offer newsletters, but those which do, show
high professional standards – frequency of publications, option to un-
subscribe, etc.
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Chapter 2. Diocesan Websites. What Can We Learn From the Largest Dioceses?
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Chapter 2. Diocesan Websites. What Can We Learn From the Largest Dioceses?
24. Navigation
The clearer a website’s navigation is, the more its content and ser-
vices can be used. The problems and virtues of diocesan websites in
this area are very different. While almost all have links to the home
page, it is common to find unnecessary repetition of links or links that
do not work.
Adequate navigation is real when it helps visitors to orient them-
selves within the site through clear navigation bars, consistency of
pages, sections with self-evident labels, uniformity of menus, icons,
page titles, URLs, links, etc. Making a website accessible and usable
to local and foreign users at the same time requires paying attention to
“international usability” (Pernice & Nielsen 2001), that is, using ele-
ments that can be identifiable to any user, independently from her/his
geographical origin.
26. Tags
An essential element for the identification of a diocesan website
is the internet address or Uniform Resource Locator (URL). The
website’s address allows us to ascertain the similarities between the
institution (a specific ecclesiastical circumscription in our case) and its
identification and presentation on the internet. In general, diocesan
websites are easily identifiable through their internet address. The Top
Level Domain or TLD – such as .com, .net, .org, or .info – is not
as important as the domain name, which facilitates the identification
between the website and the real institution. Although there is an in-
creasing comprehension of this factor and a higher use of real names
in the institutional websites, there are still many Church institutions
which have not put it into practice.
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a) The Title tag is probably the most important element in the code
language of a website, since it is one of the highest weighted el-
ements in search engines’ ranking algorithms. Search engines use
Title tags to present the results to users’ queries; therefore, the title
given to a website (or web page) by its managers is the website’s
first descriptive element, like the plaque on a company’s front door.
A positive example may be the Title tag of the website of Johan-
nesburg’s archdiocese, www.catholic-johannesburg.org.za: “Official
website of the Catholic Archdiocese of Johannesburg, South Africa”
(as of January 2, 2009). Conversely, the Title of a major diocese
from a Latin American country read “Home,” which made it com-
pletely unidentifiable.
Moreover, it is the Title tag that browsers use to save the website
as a bookmark. The high number of favorite websites registered on
most computers suggests that they should be easily identifiable: vis-
its to some websites may be conditioned by the visibility (i.e. sim-
plicity and identification) of their titles.
In general, most of the diocesan websites include the name of the
diocese in the home page’s Title tag; however, this tag is not always
filled in all the web pages of the website, where search engines can
go directly without passing through the home page.
The insistence on the use of tags has a direct impact on the vis-
ibility and identification of diocesan websites, that is, how easily they
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can be found among the millions of websites on the world wide web.
Visibility is not as much important regarding repeat visitors (already
familiar with the website’s address or URL) as with first-users. In fact,
people who reach the website by directly typing the URL (or using
the bookmark feature of the browser) do not need the help of a search
engine to find it. However, in order to reach new visitors, website
managers need to concentrate their efforts on making their site easily
accessible through search engines. Search engines are becoming more
effective and efficient and, thus, increase the possibilities that a website
could be found by a first-time visitor. Nonetheless, instruments that
help websites to be ranked higher should be used as much as possible.
Managers need to ask themselves, “What is the word (or words) that
identify me (or my website)?” Or, even better, they should try to in-
crease their visibility by thinking as the search engines’ users do and
select words that respond to users’ interests. A significant example is
the use of the word AIDS by the diocesan website of Johannesburg,
which offers related information to this important issue in South Af-
rica. Moreover, webmasters need to consider the weight that different
search engines give to Title and Description tags, as well as to other
elements such as back links, etc.
As explained, an in-depth analysis of website communication can-
not limit to “things” (pillar I and II), but needs to consider also the
persons related to the website. In the following two paragraphs, atten-
tion is given to the managers (promoters, creators, etc.) and visitors or
users of diocesan websites.
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laborators, who range from the webmaster to the responsible for the
different sections or departments.
Referred to diocesan websites, the management includes all those
activities related to running the website in its technical dimension, in
its contents and services, and in relation with the users. In other words,
it relates to all the activities that the website team is responsible for,
from the planning and creation of the website, updating and promot-
ing it, monitoring and evaluating its performance, to dealing with the
audience of the website. Though the list could be amplified, there are
six important areas that affect much to the activities and roles of the
website managers: 1) Work-force; 2) Work-flow; 3) Role of the Bishop; 4)
Financial Resources, Advertising, Commercial Activities, and Donations;
5) Interaction with the Visitors; and 6) Promotion and Benchmarking.
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Webmasters have almost total control over the site, though they con-
sult their superiors when necessary. Therefore, they need to undergo
adequate training and formation because of the importance of their
position. Their responsibility includes the fact that they need to be
ready to reply to any of the issues at stake, considering that for any
given answer the ultimate authority for the content of the diocesan
website is the bishop.
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4.2. Challenges
The analysis of the activities and roles of the responsible for di-
ocesan websites allows us to synthesize several challenges for website
teams:
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reason why running a website does not imply only technical prepara-
tion, but communication skills and management training.
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Chapter 2. Diocesan Websites. What Can We Learn From the Largest Dioceses?
5.1. Users
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Chapter 2. Diocesan Websites. What Can We Learn From the Largest Dioceses?
6. Conclusions
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Chapter 3
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Chapter 3. Online Church Communications. Lessons from Journalists
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d) Other issues:
As explained, journalists are mainly interested in news and con-
tacts and do not care much about other sections of diocesan websites
such as education or arts and culture. In spite of that, they have also
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Chapter 3. Online Church Communications. Lessons from Journalists
the media. This option makes possible for the institution to offer the
most appropriate and relevant images of its members and activities (be
presented as you want to be presented).
c) File Formats:
More than 60% of the journalists want that most of the informa-
tion present on a website could be copied or downloaded without the
need to format it. The reason is again time constraints. The majority
of journalists is not worried about the use of advanced software, since
they have easy access to latest technologies and possess higher internet
qualification than the average user.
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b) Conflictive relationships:
Few journalists describe positively the attitude of press officers
towards the media. The great majority qualify the dioceses’ dealing
with mass media as pretty poor. For example, an American journalist
affirmed that “most (dioceses) do a pretty poor job, especially with the
Catholic media [...]. In general, they tend to be uncooperative with
the media, put them off, and act very coy when providing details”; and,
according to an Indian journalist, their media relations “remain at a
minimal level”.
As a matter of fact, most of the journalists consider the relationship
between diocesan press officers and the mass media as one of conflict.
That view is more prevalent in journalists working for Catholic media,
who put the blame on the media. A Brazilian journalist affirmed that
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the mass media “are generally ignorant, indifferent or partial with re-
gard to Church information”, and an Italian journalist assured that the
few times that journalists search for information on diocesan websites
is to search for a scandal or conflict, or for a curiosity. But there is no
interest in listening to what the Church has to say”.
The reasons for that hostile relationship are, according to journal-
ists, very different. They range from the effects that information on
priests’ sexual scandals has had (as think several American journalists)
to a common lack of transparency in the press offices, which makes
them be “not completely trustworthy” (as says a Spanish journalist).
However, journalists are overwhelmingly convinced that the main
cause of mistrust is the Church officials’ lack of understanding of the
journalistic profession. Specifically, journalists consider that Church’s
media people do not understand news values, are unfamiliar with me-
dia constraints, see the media as a menace or an uncritical instrument
to diffuse the message they want, are too protective of the Church and
lack media training. Here are some clarifying examples of journalists’
opinions in this regard:
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the modern era, understood how they can use us to get their
message across”
- A Hungarian journalist working for a Catholic news agency:
“Bishops and priests do not have good opinions about mass
media and many times are afraid of it because of historical
reasons”
- An American journalist working for a Catholic newspaper:
“I think many dioceses are secretive, suspicious and occa-
sionally have adversarial relationships with mass media”
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d) Journalists’ faults:
Some journalists recognize that part of the blame is on their side,
since many professionals do not have the necessary training to cover
religion. Sometimes, journalists write incorrectly about the Church
because of laziness, prejudice or simply a lack of understanding of ec-
clesial and ecclesiastical language. While many media require a deep
preparation to work in sections like economics, politics, international
affairs or even sports, they do not demand the same professional stan-
dards for journalists covering religion. According to a Spanish journal-
ist working for a national newspaper, “there is a lack of knowledge
[about religious issues] among journalists working in non-confessional
outlets… Some confound bishops with cardinals which, for Church
people, sounds terrible.”
Another problem that diocesan press officers need to understand
is the fact that journalists need to cover all kinds of events during week-
ends, and young or inexperienced journalists must deal with complex
issues that are not familiar with. Facing this situation, media officers
should not distance themselves from media professionals, but should
supply them the tools to help their reporting task.
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nication functions. While press offices are mainly concerned with re-
sponding to media queries, webmasters focus on updating and main-
taining the website. However, more communication between these two
departments is advisable (Bel Mallén 2004). Many journalists begin
their research from the internet, though they do not stop there, and it
is necessary to offer them accurate information on the diocesan web-
site, particularly through the press sections’ links.
Empowering both the website and the communications office
with a higher degree of collaboration will improve the quality of their
work. Media officers may rely on the possibilities offered by the website
team, which plays an essential role in making any information avail-
able to press officers in appropriate formats (audio-video streaming,
downloads, attractive graphic design, software requirements, etc.) and
other aspects related to technology (e.g. online archives, background
information in digital format, newsletters, etc.). Conversely, webmas-
ters can take advantage of the input provided by the communication
officers related to content and services (press dossiers, news and texts
written in a short and attractive journalistic style) and to communica-
tion strategies (goals, campaigns, “hot” topics, etc.).
The decision of unifying or separating the website department
and the communications office will depend on the internal structure of
the diocese, but the need for closer relationships demands regular and
more comprehensive meetings at particular times of the year to plan
future strategies and evaluate previous activities.
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Chapter 4
Internet Communication
in Religious Institutions
Slawomir Zyga
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The Institutes of Consecrated and Apostolic Life under papal law are directly
and exclusively subordinated to the Holy See with respect to discipline and internal
authorities of the institute; cf. canon 593 of the Code of Canon Law of the Latin
Church (1983) and A. Montana (2001, 184).
Data from: www.unicreditgroup.eu, 18.10.2008.
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Chapter 4. Internet Communication in Religious Institutions
to which they are devoted differs significantly among them. Hence the
differences with respect to the relations with the outside world beyond
their order or institute, which result in differing degree of internet
adoption and use in their activity.
To systematize the results of the research and to outline a panora-
ma of internet use in the environment of the institutes of consecrated
life, one can define three factors describing the phenomenon and how
the medium in question enters/finds acceptance in the monastic envi-
ronment as a tool for communication in the Catholic Church. Thus
we distinguish between:
2.1. Inside or Outside the Internet: Degree of Internet Adoption and Use
(IAU)
The first stage of IAU is having an e-mail account at one’s disposal.
It is the first and most basic internet service. From this moment on we
can talk about “being in” the net, although such presence in the internet
is somewhat “temporary”. The net serves here as a kind of temporary
deposit box for a message which should reach its addressee. Once the
message reaches its destination, it is, in most cases, deleted from the
net. It takes only a couple of minutes to send or collect a message sent to
one’s e-mail account, even if the message is of considerable size. Having
an e-mail account at one’s disposal allows us, nonetheless, to talk about
possibility of using the internet as a tool for communication.
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Figure 3.
Possesion of an email adress
Possession of an e-mail
87,2% 12,8%
Monastic orders
69,0% 31,0%
Convents
26,7% 73,3%
Convents sui iuris
Figure 3 shows that almost all monastic orders (A) have an e-mail
account at their disposal. They use the internet at least in the form of
institutional e-mail (87.2%). In case of convents (B), the vast major-
ity (69.0%) also accept the internet as a tool for communication. The
situation in convents sui iuris (C) is just the opposite. Almost three-
fourths (73.3%) of contemplative orders do not use the internet as a
channel of communication, not even on the level of e-mail.
The above-mentioned facts seem to justify the thesis that the in-
ternet in the environment of contemplative convents sui iuris has not
yet found acceptance not only as a tool for communication, but it is
also rather coldly and distrustfully received, even if only limited to the
form of an e-mail. Moreover, from the answers to the question “Do the
members of your congregation use the internet for private purposes?” it ap-
pears that there are cases (5.3%) where the superior of an autonomous
convent openly declares that it is forbidden (or only possible with the
superior’s consent) to use the internet (limited to the form of an e-
mail) for private purposes. Such answers might imply that the internet
in many contemplative convents (“closed” to the outside world) is sim-
ply not accepted.
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Figure 4.
Possession of a website
Possession of a website
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Chapter 4. Internet Communication in Religious Institutions
100,0% 96,5%
91,5%
73,6%
80,0% 64,7% 70,7%
56,1%
60,0%
40,0%
20,0%
0,0%
Monastic orders Convents
Convents sui iuris
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2.2. Inside the Internet (How, Where and Why?): Reflections on the Kind
of Use
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Chapter 4. Internet Communication in Religious Institutions
“El día 2 de julio de 2003 la Congregación para la Educación Católica aprobó que el
ISCREB (Instituto Superior de Ciencias Religiosas de Barcelona) pueda impartir los estu-
dios de Ciencias Religiosas de forma mixta, alternando la enseñanza virtual con la presen-
cial. [...] El 31 de enero de 2008 el ISCREB recibió la autorización para impartir estudios
de segundo ciclo en la modalidad virtual con lo cual a partir del curso 2008-2009 empezamos
a cursar los estudios de Màster en Ciencias Religiosas por Internet.” See www.iscreb.org/
castellano/iscreb_virtual/iscreb_v_default.htm. Last access: 02.11.2008.
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Chapter 4. Internet Communication in Religious Institutions
Communicational priorities
Monastic orders
Convents
visible (in the net) 50/50% tool for communication only e-mail without answer
The obtained results favor the use of the net as a tool for com-
munication only in the group of monastic orders (A, one third of all
answers), showing a large number of those undecided (50/50%) among
all monastic institutes/convents, which have not yet defined their strat-
egy concerning the internet and its use in their congregation. One can
notice a clearly different tendency among convents sui iuris (C), which
diverge substantially from the other monastic institutes and convents,
declaring in more than 50% of cases their interest in using the internet
only on the level of e-mail. This result confirms the above presented
thesis that the internet in the environment of contemplative autono-
mous convents has either not found acceptance as a tool for communi-
cation or is often being limited only to the form of e-mail.
The reflection on management and development concerning the
use of the internet, especially in monastic orders (A) and convents (B),
presented in this paragraph has led us to the following conclusion: it
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3. Invalidation of Misconceptions
1) The age influences the use of the internet: younger people use the
internet more often
2) Larger and more (geographically) widespread institutions (having
many branches over large area) favor communication via the inter-
net while smaller institutions do not
3) The internet is more often used by men, as they are more technically
literate than women
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Chapter 4. Internet Communication in Religious Institutions
orders (male, A). This would seem to confirm the third stereotype by
pointing out that male congregations find it easier to implement the
internet for their needs and are more open to it than female congre-
gations. A more detailed analysis, however, proves that the degree of
internet implementation is not determined by gender.
Every religious institution has its charisma (own mission), i.e. a
particular scope of activity – often even more than one – to which its
members are devoted. These charismas define the identity of a given
monastic institute/convent. They are, therefore, not just important but
they determine the way of life of institute/convent members, their at-
titude to work and to the outside world, and can, thus, be divided into
(1) active and (2) contemplative. The latter are characterized by con-
templative life subject to enclosure within the walls of a convent, where
the nuns spend their time on prayer and work and are maximally sepa-
rated from the outside world. This group of charismas is represented
by convents sui iuris (C). Looking from this perspective, the reduction
of necessary contacts with the outside world to absolute minimum by
these convents is not surprising. Therefore, communication via the in-
ternet (should it be considered useful) will be dominated by e-mail,
and a website (if existing) will be of purely informative nature, reflect-
ing the physical reality of the convent in the virtual reality. Thus, it can
be said that the low degree of internet implementation in convents sui
iuris is not primarily determined by the gender of their members but
by their contemplative charisma.
Active charismas, vastly represented by both monastic orders
(male, A) and convents (female, B), have diverse scopes of activity,
e.g.: working with immigrants or emigrants, with the sick, the poor,
in the field of education or evangelization (missionaries). Members of
such congregations often combine active life with contemplation.
The research on statistical correlations between charisma of par-
ticular institutes and the degree of IAU shows relevant interdependen-
cies. In cases of relationship between the charisma of working with
poor and abandoned persons and the number of computers in one
house the research shows clear negative values both in cases of male
institutes and female convents (Zyga 2006; Cantoni & Zyga 2007).
That means that it is not the gender of members but the charisma of a
particular institute/convent which influences the attitude towards the
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Figure 7.
Missions of male and female institutes
40,0% 31,3%
30,0%
20,7% 18,3%
20,0% 12,2% 10,6%
8,5% 7,8%
10,0%
0,0%
education missionary the poor the sick immigrants contemplation
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Slawomir Zyga
“white patch” on the internet map of the world but constitute a part of
it, at the same time retaining the uniqueness of their own mission and
way of life. Their structure resembles a model of a “post-industrial”
institution, even though their beginnings reach back to the first ages
of Christianity and are, thus, older than the typology referred to here
(Bates 2001, 58-65). If we consider a general house of a congregation
to be a headquarters of an organization and compare provincial houses
scattered around many continents, together with numerous ordinary
houses subordinated to them, with regional branches of an organiza-
tion, what we get is a structure of a modern international corporation.
In the organizational structure of monastic institutes/convents each
house has its own particular character different from other houses. The
conditions found on various continents and in various countries – de-
termined by culture, climate, history or geography – make differentia-
tion of requirements with respect to members of a particular congrega-
tion necessary in order to enable them to carry out the congregation’s
own mission (charisma). If we use economic terms here, we can talk
about products personalized in accordance with specific needs of local
markets. The congregation as a whole retains a uniform rule and cha-
risma but its structure makes “professional flexibility” possible, as well
as fast adjustment to the needs of the people where a particular local
monastic house/convent operates. As far as exchange of information
and fast, efficient communication between particular houses and the
general house is concerned, the internet is used inasmuch as different
conditions determined by the level of economic development in differ-
ent regions of the world make the medium available. It is important
to bear in mind that for monastic institutes/convents the development
of communication via the internet is not a goal in itself but a tool used
only when it helps to carry out the congregation’s own mission, which
is always put highest in the hierarchy of the congregation’s values.
In our attempt to draw some clear conclusions and to sum up the
panorama of internet communications in religious institutions, we risk
a statement that there are basically two factors, which condition and
structure the whole policy of internet use in the environment of con-
secrated life and which allow to place it among other priorities for ac-
tions and development:
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The first factor is the degree of openness to contacts with the out-
side world resulting from the institution’s own nature. It would, there-
fore, be appropriate to divide the institutes into those operating an
“open door” policy to the outside world, that is, active in a given local
society, and those who operate “behind closed doors” having a contem-
plative nature, whose members, in more or less rigorous (depending on
the rule) isolation from society, devote themselves exclusively to prayer
and contemplation, as it is the case of autonomous convents. Such dis-
tinction, between open and closed relationship with the outside world,
can explain the differences in IAU between monastic institutes and
convents (A+B) and convents sui iuris (C).
The second factor affecting development of communication via
the internet – especially among the institutes operating an “open door”
policy to the outside world (A+B) – depends on the economic condi-
tions in which a particular charisma of consecrated life is realized. If
one has to provide food for the hungry, clothes for the poor, or medi-
cines for the sick, one does not think of buying or upgrading computer
systems as a priority. The influence of economic characteristics of the
target group at which the activity of a monastic institute or convent
is directed would, therefore, have substantial meaning in creating a
technological basis for this kind of communication – the basis that is
a condition sine qua non for its existence. The large number of con-
vents (B) operating among poor people could explain why these insti-
tutes are generally a step behind monastic institutes (A), which are to
a much higher degree involved in the field of missionary activity and
evangelization.
Let us now try to anticipate what the future might bring with
respect to the use of the internet in religious institutions. At the time
when first studies of the state of internet communications in the envi-
ronment of monastic institutes/convents were conducted only 26.7%
of convents sui iuris (=houses) had an e-mail account, not to mention
other possible ways of using the internet, such as an own website.
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Part III
Cases
Table 4.
Template for cases sent to web managers
136
A. Ecclesiastical organizations
Abstract
The Holy See (Vatican) website was begun in 1995 when institu-
tional Catholic websites were few and the idea of using the world wide
web as a tool for evangelization was an emerging concept. Having the
Holy Father John Paul II take the lead by allowing himself and his
words to be offered on the internet provided a model and in a sense a
kind of approval for the Church to utilize the internet for the purpose
of reaching Catholics and non-Catholics alike.
The Vatican website has become a means to promulgate the teach-
ings of the Church by publishing the documents of the Holy Fathers
and the Magisterium. It also gives space for each Vatican office to
include documents and other materials relative to their particular mis-
sion and function in the Roman Curia.
Over the years it grew to include a search engine modified to find
Catholic themes, the daily Bulletin of the Press Office as well as an
under-embargo site for journalists, Vatican Information Service’s daily
news summary, Vatican Radio programs, Vatican Television Center’s
direct coverage of Papal events in video streaming online, virtual vis-
its to places within the Vatican and an early attempt at e-Learning.
The site maintains its multi-lingual capacity by providing naviga-
tion in 7 languages and documents themselves in approximately 9 or
10 different languages including some in Arabic and Chinese.
The Institution
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A. Ecclesiastical Organizations
can City State, it was determined from the very beginning that it must
represent the larger entity of the Holy See which includes the Holy
Father and the Magisterium and the teachings of the Church over the
centuries and the Holy See’s presence throughout the world. The mis-
sion to evangelization on the internet needs to be global in its design
and execution. At the moment of the institution of the internet Office
of the Holy See the domain registration passed from the Pontifical
Council for Social Communications to the Secretariat of State, who
remains as the final authority for its content until today.
The site would never have happened except for the incredible vi-
sion and foresight of Pope John Paul II, who from the very beginning
supported and promoted the use of the internet for evangelization,
recognizing its power in the mission of the “New Evangelization” of
those who had somehow left Christianity.
The initial goal was to present the more well-known speeches and
messages of the Holy Father and thereby determine, by the reaction
of internet users, what to place on the site based on which pages were
being requested.
The history dates back to Christmas of 1995. It was determined
that we would publish one picture of John Paul II and at noon of
Christmas Day, put his Urbi et Orbi Message for Christmas online. It
created a world-wide stir with articles in major newspapers around the
globe marveling at the mix of the age-old institution of the Vatican
brought together with the latest technology of the internet. In a large
part, though, it was an interest in the Church and the Holy Father,
coming from the local churches throughout the world. The Church is,
and has been, an existing network in the world for centuries – an actual
network. Therefore, the opening of the Vatican site allowed Catholics
to connect, virtually, out of their own actual home situation.
The idea for a website for the Vatican began in 1994 as most
things begin: friends and colleagues talking together about ideas. In
the early 90s a number of Vatican employees had begun to use email
and to surf the internet, which at that time was much simpler. Those
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A.1. The Holy See
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A. Ecclesiastical Organizations
Contents and Services
From almost the very beginning the website provided two func-
tions, one as an information server and the other as a service provider
to the Vatican Community offering them email, connectivity to the
internet and space for their individual office homepage online.
While in its larger scope the personality behind the Vatican web-
site was and is the Holy Father, nevertheless it was necessary to be
consistent with and representative of the Vatican-Roman Curia’s sense
of what was appropriate both in terms of content and visual design.
The arrangement of the site presented a unique challenge in giving the
world a way to “reach” a well-know figure, Pope John Paul II and yet
preserving an enormous sense of discretion, confidentiality and hierar-
chy which is at the essence of the Roman Curia.
Regarding the navigation of the site, in order to win the approval
of the “sponsoring corporate organization”, that is the Holy See as rep-
resented by the Roman Curia, it seemed important to present a struc-
ture that was actually familiar to those who worked in it and whom
the site would be representing and to make it intuitively familiar to the
different offices. The structure of the site thus became two major sec-
tions, the Holy Father who was/is the main drawing card for the site
and the Roman Curia structural re-creation of Offices and Services
142
A.1. The Holy See
much like the classic Annuario Pontificio published each year, as the
skeletal profile composing the Holy See.
The main “tabs” or navigational sections of the site were the fol-
lowing: The Holy Father (with documents dating back to the late
1800s), The Roman Curia, News Services, Vatican City State, Re-
source Documents, Search. This has since been modified to include
also Liturgical Celebrations, once part of News Services and Liturgical
Year, which presents material based on the Liturgical Season.
It was decided as well to use sacred art and symbols not only for
their beauty and meaning, but also to represent and link to “deeper” ar-
eas of the site and to create a kind of “sacred space” as represented by
the site itself.
The navigation structure from the very beginning was available
in six languages, reflecting in part the Universality of the Catholic
Church as represented by the Holy See. The languages are: English,
Italian, Spanish, German, Portuguese, and French. Documents were
also available in the beginning years in the additional languages of Pol-
ish and Latin.
With the finalization of the site “look and feel” in 1997, a search
engine was added which has since been modified and revised in order to
meet the particular search needs of Church documents and themes.
Virtual visits were also added beginning with the Holy Father’s
personal chapel, Redemptoris Mater, and followed by the Vatican Mu-
seums which opened a major section featuring tours of the world-re-
nowned art and the Sistine Chapel. The Vatican Library and the Se-
cret Archives also offer some possibility of visiting and viewing their
materials. The Papal Basilicas are now being added as well.
Experiments have been made as well to include an e-Learning
section as well as a streaming video archive.
The website began with just two persons, one assigned to con-
tent presentation and the other to monitoring the technical including
the telecommunication and the server technology. This expanded to
143
A. Ecclesiastical Organizations
Future Projects
144
A.1.2. Congregation for the Clergy
Contact
Name of the Institution: Congregation for the Clergy
Website address: www.clerus.org / www.bibliaclerus.org
Case’s author: Lucio Adrián Ruiz
Role/position: System Manager
Abstract
The Congregation for the Clergy, arising from its task of promot-
ing the ongoing formation of clerics (cf. art. 92 Apostolic Constitution
Pastor Bonus of the 28th June 1988) has created an information system
which contains many resources useful for the exercise of the priestly,
diaconal and catechetical ministry in order to offer an easier access to
the magisterial, doctrinal and theological patrimony of the Church.
This system will assist ongoing study and a more attentive and worthy
proclamation of the Word of God and a better preparation for teach-
ing catechesis.
This information system, called “Clerus System,” is composed of
a series of data transmission services (not only a web page), which are
described below, and it has as a goal to reach the greatest amount of
clergy possible, with assistance adapted to their diverse needs.
It has been a particular task to ensure that the resources can reach
even those clerics who do not have access to original sources for their
formation.
The Institution
145
A. Ecclesiastical Organizations
146
A.1. The Holy See
147
A. Ecclesiastical Organizations
It must be made clear above all that Clerus is not simply an in-
ternet site but a collection of interlocking projects which have taken
account the necessities presented by Bishops during their Ad Limina
visits and what emerge from personal contacts with both priests and
Bishops.
The study of these necessities, of the cultural, economic and tech-
nological facts, of the strategic possibility of the Holy See – and of
the Congregation for the Clergy in particular – before the world, has
allowed the development of these projects and services which have
reached the five continents. This collection of projects and services of
Clerus is composed of:
148
A.1. The Holy See
149
A. Ecclesiastical Organizations
a. Websites
150
A.1. The Holy See
b. Mailing Lists
151
A. Ecclesiastical Organizations
the Congregation but involves the entire Dicastery and is part of its
daily work.
The co-ordination of the various elements of the services is re-
alised by the data analysis section of the Congregation, in which two
officials work.
The Superiors have given a number of officials the task of being
responsible for the content of the websites for the various languages,
but it remains the duty of the Superiors to indicate the basic direction
the sites have, both in general and for each particular language. In this
way each language has its own life insofar as content is concerned,
depending on the material available according to the rights of authors.
Therefore, the content is not always identical for the various languages,
except for those fundamental matters taken from official translations,
especially concerning documents issued by the Dicastery.
Data Entry is realised by the official responsible for each language
through an appropriate programme which allows documents to be
placed immediately in the electronic library.
The Cardinal Prefect has personally undertaken a programme of
work to accompany priests throughout the world by a series of short
messages which arrive them by email. This activity has created a posi-
tive dynamic confirmed by the Bishops who visit the Congregation.
Contact with publishing houses, universities and the various au-
thors who collaborate on the content of the sites is likewise the com-
petence of the Superiors in such a way as to bring about meetings and
agreements to discover suitable quality material.
The planning and management of systems is achieved in the data
analysis section, but the technical aspects (programming, hosting,
security, etc.) are outsourced to avoid having unnecessary structures
within the Congregation. Graphic design is likewise outsourced to
professionals who work to the direction of the Congregation arising
from suggestions of the Superiors and from the ordinary meetings of
the Dicastery.
The entire clerus.org system, constituted by the sites, CDs and
mailing lists, is made possible by the support of collaborators both
through monetary resources and through their work. Projects are
chosen with a determined scope so that funds can be collected to a
152
A.1. The Holy See
Future Projects
153
A.1.3. RIIAL – Information Network
of the Church in Latin America
Contact
Name of the Institution: Information Network of the Church in Latin America
[Red Informática de la Iglesia en América Latina]
Website address: www.riial.org
Case’s author: Leticia Soberón Mainero
Role/position: General Coordinator
Abstract
The Institution
154
A.1. The Holy See
and digital age”, which bring together people in charge of the com-
puter services in the different ecclesiastical institutions. Such meetings
allow people to share their own achievements, to meet other pastoral
operators of the same field, to learn the real needs of the users, enlarg-
ing dialogue spaces and planning common services.
There are also institutions created to offer specific services to all
members. For example, the Centro Guadalupe (Santa Fe, Argentina)
creates applications for the everyday life of Catholic institutions. A pack
of software applications has been developed for the Bishops’ Offices
and Parishes’ pastoral work, especially designed for information and
data sharing (www.riial.org/aplicativos). This Center is also a Train-
ing and Education institution, on both technical and ecclesiological
issues. RIIAL’s Free Servers for the Church is called TRIMILENIO
(www.trimilenio.net), and offers as well support to create websites in
a professional way.
From the very beginning an institution of consecrated women
(Asociación de Servidoras) was engaged to construct a Data Base of
Magisterial texts of the Church, which is available for free (www.ser-
vidoras.org.ar). In order to keep in touch with the new technologies
being developed, RIIAL has also created a permanent Observatory
Service on the Internet and a provider of free-servers for Church insti-
tutions (www.observatoriodigital.net).
The General Coordination of those different institutions is lo-
cated in Rome, in the Pontifical Council for Social Communications,
in close collaboration with CELAM.
155
A. Ecclesiastical Organizations
156
A.1. The Holy See
157
A. Ecclesiastical Organizations
158
A.1. The Holy See
Year Users
2003 800
2005 1,300
2007 2,100
Table 6.
Evolution of subscribers of the Bulletin
“EnRedDándonos” (2004-2007)
Year Subscribers
2004 3,000
2005 5,000
2007 12,000
Table 7.
Number of downloads of Eclesial (parish and
bishops’ office software) (2003-2007)
Year Downloads
2003 30,000
2005 40,000
2007 50,000
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A. Ecclesiastical Organizations
Table 8.
Email queries from users (2003-2007)
Future projects
At this point, it can be said that RIIAL has accomplished its first
goal: a large part of the Church in the continent has adopted and uses
computers as normal tools for its own work.
Among the future activities, a priority will be given to interactive
videogames, video-clips, brief and concise messages with music and
images, especially addressed to young people (see www.h2onews.org,
inspired by RIIAL criteria of sharing).
A large effort will be done by RIIAL in the training of operators
at all levels in the Catholic Church in the field of new technologies and
their pastoral uses: ranging from a Master for priests on Digital Era,
to workshops for Parish technicians on hardware solutions for com-
munities in need.
The Pontifical Council is studying, as requested by Pope John
Paul II, the ways to promote a similar project in Africa, respecting the
great differences between those two continents.
In collaboration with some Religious Congregations in the field of
education, RIIAL will begin a pilot phase, using the XO computer of
the One Laptop Per Child Project.
160
A.2.1. CEI - Italian Bishops’ Conference
Contact
Name of the Institution: CEI – Italian Bishops’ Conference
[Conferenza Episcopale Italiana]
Website address: www.chiesacattolica.it
Case’s author: Domenico Pompili
Role/position: Director of the Social Communications Office
Abstract
The Institution
161
A. Ecclesiastical Organizations
2008 marks the twelfth year of the presence of the Italian Bishops’
Conference on the internet: from the pioneering versions in the age of
web 1.0 in 1996 to the innovations also deriving from the strong “so-
cial” pressures of so-called web 2.0 in more recent months.
The website, which has by now consolidated its own mission of
institutional information and communication, support to pastoral ac-
tivities and contact with operators and surfers, is now aiming at the
specialization and optimization of its organization to be able to reach
its target audiences with greater ease and efficiency.
162
A.2. Bishops’ Conferences
163
A. Ecclesiastical Organizations
The search engine works on all the contents of the site, including
documents attached, or those produced by the dioceses; it also works
on other websites promoted by the offices of the CEI. Using the ad-
vanced search function it is possible to access the web archives of other
agencies linked to the CEI, such as the SIR Press Agency and the
Datafilm of the National Commission for Film Evaluation.
This will soon be complemented with a more generalized search
engine able to operate on wider (and perhaps less institutional) informa-
tion generated by the various expressions of the Catholic world: linked
sites, sites of dioceses and parishes, weeklies and other Catholic media.
www.chiesacattolica.it can also be used to access numerous internet
projects promoted by the offices of the CEI itself or by institutions and
agencies connected with it. In some cases, the websites are born from
the same editorial platform, while their layout and provision of services
are geared to the specific target audiences they are intended to reach.
164
A.2. Bishops’ Conferences
165
A. Ecclesiastical Organizations
Future Projects
As for the future, the website will continue to develop and confirm
its institutional nature, with ever growing attention to the quality, reli-
ability and updating of the data and information, which more specially
fall within its responsibility.
At the same time, it will emphasize its role as a source of promo-
tion and stimulus for the use of the web by all the institutional and
pastoral bodies of the Italian Catholic Church, to help them express
themselves in forms ever more attentive to the needs and interests of
their users, who now wish to be active protagonists, and not just users
of contents formulated and provided by others.
The website’s dedicated staff will continue to study the rapid dif-
fusion of such phenomena as Google, Youtube, Wikipedia, and others,
which characterize the “social network”. The website www.chiesacat-
tolica.it intends to promote forms of cooperation and participation,
but with the necessary attention to quality of content, the essential
prerequisite for its goal of “formation” and “evangelization”.
This process of renewal, already begun in 2006, will soon lead to
important structural and aesthetic variations, which will help further
simplify surfing among the website’s institutional contents on the one
166
A.2.2. CELAM – Latin American
Episcopal Conference
Contact
Name of the institution: CELAM - Latin American Episcopal Conference
[Consejo Episcopal Latinoamericano]
Website address: www.celam.org
Case’s author: David Gutiérrez
Role/position: Director of the Press Office
Abstract
We are introducing the system of portals of CELAM – the in-
stitution that coordinates the pastoral actions of the Bishops of Latin
America and the Caribbean. It is a system with internal pages that
correspond to each one of the centers and institutes, in which a corpo-
rative image of the organization is maintained. Being a website dedi-
cated to the Latin American bishops’ work, we are also showing the
web solution implemented for the complete process of the 5th General
Conference of Bishops (May 2007), and we stress the solutions giv-
en to guarantee the participation and interactivity of the Continent’s
faithful. CELAM has been in existence for 54 years and has pioneered
the use of IT in pastoral activity, as well as promoting the Church’s
computing networking in Latin America, RIIAL.
The Institution
The Latin American Episcopal Council was created in 1955 as an
organ of collegiality of the bishops of Latin America and the Carib-
bean, and its mission is to coordinate pastoral actions for the benefit of
the parishioners in the countries of the area. At present, it is organized
in a general secretariat based in Bogotá, Colombia, and it is made up
of 6 departments, 3 pastoral centers, and a theological institute. The
Directiva (President and other authorities) is chosen every 4 years by
the general assembly of Bishops’ Conferences presidents and delegates,
and the global plan that directs the actions of the institution is also ap-
proved for its application in each four-year term.
167
A. Ecclesiastical Organizations
168
A.2. Bishops’ Conferences
were sent contents written in daily bulletins, and an access system was
created – restricted to journalists and communicators who registered.
More than 1,000 communicators registered. Journalists who entered
the restricted area were able to obtain documents and papers under
embargo, including the Pope’s speeches during his visit to the Confer-
ence. Simultaneously, and in association with the portal Terra.com.br,
there was a transmission of audio and video contents, which were very
much appreciated by many followers of the General Conference and
the media. It was also transmitted via satellite. The contents remained
stored and could be downloaded on demand.
Besides these services, there was a follow-up adding documents
and talks, which were the object of much downloading. At the con-
clusion of the General Conference, and after the approval of the final
document with the conclusions, the portal was useful for the circulation
of those contents. Now it has changed to help promote the Continen-
tal Mission, publishing all the documents produced by CELAM and
serving also as a channel for the dissemination of information about
the Mission in each Bishops’ Conference and diocese.
169
A. Ecclesiastical Organizations
tation of the participation system, users were those responsible for the
Bishops’ Conferences in the area of the 5th Conference, who enabled
users in the dioceses, parishes, and groups, to enter the system. This
methodology continued during the conference itself. And while the
Conference unfolded, another specialized group of users was created,
namely the journalists with their specific system.
Together with these mechanisms, another form of participation
was that of the bishops themselves who – through electronic mails and
chats – consulted theologians and specialists in their countries. The
5th Conference system counted also with chat and forum spaces, but
they were neither used nor activated. It must be highlighted as a most
significant fact that, at the time of making a break for the July 2007
management report, the conference web had received more than one
million visits. It must be highlighted also that two subpages were made
of this 5th Conference web, one in Portuguese and the other in Eng-
lish. The data are in the annex, just as other data of the Conference’s
main web. The following tables present the statistics from the website
of the 5th Conference as of June 2007.
Table 9.
Visits to www.celam.info
Table 10.
www.celam.info’s activity in May 2007
(month of the General Conference in Aparecida)
170
A.2. Bishops’ Conferences
Table 11.
Statistics of the page in Portuguese: http://br.celam.info
(page launched in January 2007)
Table 12.
Statistics of the page in English: http://en.celam.info
(page launched on May 7, 2007)
171
A. Ecclesiastical Organizations
Table 13.2.
Download of Records
Table 13.3.
Download of the Summary Document
Table 13.4.
Other downloads
172
A.2. Bishops’ Conferences
The 5th Conference web was a collective work that began with
the collaboration of the Centro Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe of Argen-
tina, the technical center of the RIIAL. With this team a study was
made of the possibilities of use of interactive tools, and also the pos-
sibilities of enriching the page with mechanisms of participation and
exchange. This study took place in 2005. For the creation of the spe-
cific page, and the implementation of the suggestions offered by the
Centro Guadalupe, contact was made with the team of VEMultimedios
of Peru, consisting of Catholic professionals who look after pages of
other Church institutions. The job was very professionally done: pages
in Spanish, Portuguese, and English were created, and solutions for
interactivity as well as participation in the phases of the 5th Confer-
ence were implemented. This team also designed and implemented
the participation system both on-line and off-line, and helped with
its distribution. In addition, they created the system for the use of the
participation document with search systems and internal links. In the
process of the 5th Conference, the team of VEMultimedios carried out
the work of audio and video adjustment, which was transmitted as
streaming through the www.terra.com.br portal.
Work with VEMultimedios continued until the middle of 2008,
when the www.celam.info web was incorporated to the system of por-
tals of CELAM and we took over its general administration, trans-
forming it into the Continental Mission page.
Future Projects
173
A.3.1. Archdiocese of Madrid
Contact
Name of the Institution: Archdiocese of Madrid
[Arzobispado de Madrid]
Website Address: www.archimadrid.es
Case’s author: Juan Pedro Ortuño Morente
Role/position: Director of the Internet Department and Episcopal
Delegate for Social Communications
Abstract
The Institution
174
A.3. Dioceses and Prelatures
Data about the origin of users show that while 50.9% are unknown,
10.7% come from the USA (but it could mean that they access from a
.com domain), 8.0% from Spain, 4.2% from Mexico, 3.9% from Peru,
3.8% from Argentina, 2.6% from Chile, 2.4% from Colombia, 2.3%
from Italy, 2.2% from Portugal, 1.8% from the Dominican Republic,
1.4% from Costa Rica, and 1.1% from Uruguay.
175
A. Ecclesiastical Organizations
176
A.3. Dioceses and Prelatures
Future Projects
177
A.3.2. Prelature of Opus Dei
Contact
Name of the Institution: Prelature of Opus Dei
Website address: www.opusdei.org
Case’s author: Juan Narbona
Role/position: Worldwide web editor
Abstract
The Institution
178
A.3. Dioceses and Prelatures
179
A. Ecclesiastical Organizations
The official website went online for the first time in 1996 in four
languages (English, French, Italian, and Spanish). Through three re-
designs (1996, 1998 and 2006) the website has constantly increased
the number of texts and multimedia contents, presently in 32 different
languages. The goals of the website are mainly three:
The articles within the different sections can be classified into two
different types: timeless and timely. The timeless contents are articles
explaining the basics of Opus Dei and are not linked to the calendar
180
A.3. Dioceses and Prelatures
181
A. Ecclesiastical Organizations
182
A.3. Dioceses and Prelatures
Graph 2.
Monthly evolution of visits to www.opusdei.org (in thousands) during 2006
1500
1400
1300
1200
1100
1000
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
r
ry
ay
h
r
y
t
il
be
be
e
us
be
c
ar
l
pr
ua
ob
Ju
M
ar
Ju
em
ug
em
em
nu
A
br
ct
A
ov
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pt
ec
Fe
N
Se
D
That was a “global crisis” of communication and the website was
useful as a “global tool” to cover the need of information that the film
had generated in almost every country of the world.
The same phenomenon happens in a local event. Table 15 shows
a peak on the statistics of the Italian website after an interview of a
member of Opus Dei on TG2, an Italian Evening News Television
program (September 22, 2008). People were interested because Opus
Dei was celebrating its 80th anniversary. In that case, the visits increased
for two days. While the number of visits was 1,216 on September 19, it
reached 5,629 on September 23 (+ 462%).
Table 15.
Statistics of www.opusdei.it (Italian version) during the week 20-27,
September 2008 (including the crisis of September 22)
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A. Ecclesiastical Organizations
Graph 3.
Weekly evolution of visits to www.opusdei.it (Italian version) during the week
20-27, September 2008 (including the crisis of September 22)
6.000
5.000
4.000
3.000
2.000
1.000
0
20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
The previous examples (The Da Vinci Code and the Italian inter-
view) are extreme cases. The statistics show that, month after month
and in almost every country, the most solicited contents are those ex-
plaining the basics of Opus Dei’s spirit.
184
A.3. Dioceses and Prelatures
read by all the members. Now, there are many more readers and they
can read the letter much sooner.
The third group of users is journalists, who can find on the site the
necessary background to present information about Opus Dei. Partic-
ularly useful for the media are the news items about the activities of the
Prelature and the initiatives run by its members, the testimonies of the
faithful of the Prelature, and the publication of the pastoral letters.
Together, these audiences are steadily increasing their use of the
website. These are the statistics of www.opusdei.org (non-human ac-
cesses have been filtered out):
Table 16.
Statistics of www.opusdei.org (2003-2008)
The increase between 2004 and 2006 is very sharp because of The
Da Vinci Code book (2004-2005) and movie (2006). However, the sta-
tistics show that in 2007 – without the film – the website has reached
a higher number of visitors than in 2003.
185
A. Ecclesiastical Organizations
In this way, all the sites are being fed periodically with new con-
tent, thanks to the work of the general administrator and the language
leaders. This approach guarantees that any site can have local content
that reflects the apostolic work of Opus Dei in that country. The con-
tent appearing on all the websites is supplied by the Opus Dei Infor-
mation Office.
Hence, the content management is the responsibility of each
country, with help in coordination from the General Administrator in
Rome. The technical support (domain name registration, server main-
tenance, redesign, etc.) is handled by the Information Office of Spain.
While those in charge in Rome and Madrid have degrees in Journal-
186
A.3. Dioceses and Prelatures
Future Projects
Some future projects for the website include writing a book of style
for all the languages, adding flash presentations to the site; offering a
newsletter only for journalists, adding more short videos explaining the
basics of Opus Dei, and increasing the number of podcasts with texts
of the Founder.
187
A.4.1. Congregation of Missionaries of
St. Charles – Scalabrinians
Contact
Name of the Institution: Congregation of Missionaries of St. Charles - Scalabrinians
[Congregazione dei Missionari di S. Carlo - Scalabriniani]
Website address: www.scalabrini.org
Case’s author: Slawomir Zyga
Role/position: External researcher (Director of Communications,
Archdiocese Szczecin – Kamień, Poland)
Abstract
188
A.4. Congregations and Movements
The Institution
189
A. Ecclesiastical Organizations
to its technological aspect (the graphic layout has been changed) since
the year 2005. To understand why this is an asset one should look at
the issue not with the eyes of an inhabitant of “technologized” Europe
or North America but with the eyes of a Scalabrinian missionary living
somewhere in the provinces of e.g. Argentina or in an African village
where electricity is supplied for only a couple of hours a day, and where
the internet can be accessed only via mobile or satellite phone. In such
circumstances the website should load quickly to enable swift search for
relevant information/documents making one able to download them
onto one’s own computer as fast as possible. If a website, especially in-
tranet, is to be used for communication efficiently, one has to take the
technologically weakest “links in the chain” into consideration, which
is exactly what those in charge of the Scalabrinians’ website did.
The home page is divided into three vertical sections. The central
section contains topical issues, most important of which is situated on
the top of the page with other important titles scrolling beneath it, and
yet another highlighted titles underneath.
The right-hand section contains banners informing about events
organized by Scalabrinians, either by their General House or by par-
ticular provincial houses scattered over the whole world. The section
starts with a calendar where all the most important events and an-
niversaries, as well as special dates connected with the patron of the
congregation are highlighted.
The left-hand section provides information about the congrega-
tion: about its structure and authorities as well as some historical data.
Here we can also find the congregation’s yearbook with personal regis-
ter (ordered by administrative units) but in order to access it one needs
to log in. In this section there is also a module “links scalabriniani”,
which contains internet addresses of the sites ran by particular orga-
nizational units (provinces, regions, monastic houses) connected with
the congregation. This module includes 98 links.
At the bottom of the page one can find three functional icons
which serve to promote the portal: 1) set as main page, 2) add to Fa-
vorites, 3) send link to a friend.
190
A.4. Congregations and Movements
191
A. Ecclesiastical Organizations
The site was tested on December 8, 2008 using Internet Explorer, Firefox,
Safari, Mozilla, Opera and Avant Browser.
2
The operating systems used were Windows XP (75.5%) and Vista (20.4%).
192
A.4. Congregations and Movements
Table 18.
Visits to the site by geographical area (2008)
Country 2008
Italy 42,1%
North America (USA and Canada) 14,5%
Latin America 16,8%
Switzerland 10,6%
Germany 3,8%
Spain 1,3%
Philippines 2,6%
Australia and Oceania 2,4%
– The traffic on the website between 2005 and 2008 has remained
at the same level, which may suggest existence of a large constant
group of people interested in the site
– Visitors from Italy constitute the largest group, which is most evi-
dent in August when the holiday season in this country reaches its
peak. There is a dramatic decrease in the number of visits from Italy
in this time of year: from 42% to 30%
– The dominance of Microsoft software – among both browsers and
operating systems of the website visitors – has remained unassailable
– The website is most often found by means of Google search engine,
showing the importance of this source of visits
The data presented above seem to justify the thesis that the con-
gregation of Scalabrinians has been quite successful in creating a simple
internet portal which presents their activity in different regions of the
world. The portal has, moreover, attracted quite a number of “faithful”
visitors.
193
A. Ecclesiastical Organizations
The question “Who’s behind it?” has two aspects with respect to
website which should be taken into consideration. The first aspect
concerns technical maintenance service, which is entrusted with a pro-
fessional IT specialist from the outside who takes systematic care of
the website with respect to both hardware and software.
The second aspect of website functioning concerns moderation of
communication processes via the website. This task has been entrusted
to the Secretary General by the General Authorities of the congrega-
tion. The scope of his responsibility includes monitoring portal func-
tioning as well as systematic updating and archiving its content. The
laborious task of entering data, however, belongs to the General Au-
thorities of the congregation.
It is obvious that the wide range of contents put on the website
is not homogenous and has to be entrusted to separate teams, e.g. the
ICS bulletin. Some of the contents, e.g. the letters of the General Su-
perior, are translated into various languages by professional translators.
It does not, however, change the fact that everything is practically un-
der the supervision of two people: the IT specialist/webmaster and the
Secretary General, and that the whole portal is financed by the budget
of the general house of the congregation.
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A.4. Congregations and Movements
The Scalabrinians are fully aware of the need to update their por-
tal. For this reason they are currently working intensely on a new ver-
sion of their website. The main priorities concerning communication,
which were described earlier in the text, are not to be changed. The
layout of the site, however, is to be changed, as well as its graphics with
respect to the choice of colors. Moreover, the website will be avail-
able in six language versions: Italian (which is to be the main version),
Spanish, Portuguese, English, French and German. The search engine
on the site shall also be a welcome novelty. The main asset of the site
– namely its technical simplicity – is anyway to be retained.
195
A.4.2. Communion and Liberation
Contact
Name of the Institution: Communion and Liberation
[Comunione e Liberazione]
Website address: www.clonline.org
Case’s author: Stefania Ragusa
Role/position: Editor
Abstract
The Institution
196
A.4. Congregations and Movements
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A. Ecclesiastical Organizations
198
A.4. Congregations and Movements
When the website was set up, no objectives were set as regards
numbers or the kind of visitors it was intended to attract to the site.
The website counts an average of 60,000 unique visitors per month,
with 200,000 visits (excluding spiders) for a total of 1,000,000 page-
views. In November 2008, unique visitors were 93,931. Total visits
were 219,554 with a daily average of 7,318. The numbers are growing
every year. 70% of the visitors make one visit per month. The number
of visits during the week is constant. No detailed data are available as
to the geographical distribution of the visitors.
In the classification of the top pages, 60% of the visits are to the
home page and this is in line with the structure of the site which offers
documents in PDF on the home page. The monthly classification of
the documents most downloaded reports a total of 50,000 for a score
of different documents.
The website offers a subscription to a newsletter, up to now is has
14,644 subscribers.
Fabio Previdi set up the data base and took on the job of DBA
Administrator. Lorenzo Pansera took charge of the installation of the
system and acts as System Administrator. The Web Designers are Da-
vide Cestari and Daniela Belloni. In addition, they are responsible for
organizing and uploading the online content.
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A. Ecclesiastical Organizations
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In the following months the website will switch from the use of
asp/html language to a platform based on a CMS, which will make it
possible to coordinate it with the national websites and simplify the
updating. The search engine will be renewed and a dynamic map of the
site will be provided enabling the user to find what s/he is looking for
easily and visually. A new newsletter service will also be activated.
200
B. Media
Abstract
The Vatican Radio website has been present on the internet since
the end of the 1990’s and today speaks 38 languages. It provides up-
to-date information on the activities of Pope Benedict XVI, the Holy
See, and the life of the Church, as well as news regarding churches in
various parts of the world, and coverage of the main issues of today.
One of the main objectives of Vatican Radio is to intensify collabora-
tion and synergy with radio stations, websites, production centres, in
the Catholic world especially, but not exclusively, to make its service as
much available as possible.
The Institution
203
B. Media
204
B.1. Vatican Radio
205
B. Media
206
B.1. Vatican Radio
207
B. Media
(from the writing of a single article, its internal archiving with audio
clip, photo and/or video clip, up to its external publication on the web
page, and its distribution via e-mail, podcast, RSS, mobile telephone,
etc.). They make up a single process in which the topical moment and
the highly urgent phase is constituted by the notification of the updat-
ing (in the writing phase, archiving, publication, distribution).
Vatican Radio’s IT Unit also has a team, headed by the Technical
Department, which deals with webcasting, distributing the audio sig-
nal via live streaming, and distributing audio clips for individual listen-
ers and in high quality for rebroadcasting by other radio stations.
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B.2. EWTN – Eternal Word
Television Network
Contacts
Name of Institution: EWTN - Eternal Word Television Network
Website address: www.ewtn.com
Case’s authors, role/position:
Jeff Burson: Senior Web Developer / Web Manager
Michelle Johnson: Director of Communications
Abstract
The Institution
209
B. Media
210
B.2. EWTN – Eternal Word Television Network
Catalogue is now easily available at the click of a button from the home
page.
In January 1998, EWTN.com added a Spanish language website
and, in 2003, a website was developed in German.
On the technical side, EWTN added live audio to its website in
1998. Soon, archived audio of series and the Daily Mass were made
available on demand with a RealAudio Player.
In 1999, EWTN signed with Real Networks to provide stream-
ing audio and video of both its English and Spanish feeds. In 2004,
EWTN provided MP3 of its programs with the growth of iPods and
MP3 players.
Among the site’s most popular sections are a growing collec-
tion of prayers, novenas and litanies; the news site; and EWTNkids.
Launched in 2006, EWTNkids is an interactive internet site where
young people can learn about their Catholic faith. EWTNKids is built
around a Catholic neighborhood, which is home to a church, a school,
several homes, a clubhouse, a Post Office, a library and the EWTN
Faith Factory, which is the name of the Network’s children’s program-
ming block.
Most recently, EWTN signed with Akamai Technologies in 2008
to make available its eight television and two radio signals online us-
ing Windows Media Player. In fact, most of EWTN past and present
programming can now be heard on demand from the website.
In a nutshell, viewers and potential viewers have come to know
that they can turn to EWTN.com to find: 1) information about up-
coming programming; 2) on-demand programming; 3) live streaming
video and audio; 4) background information on shows; 5) amplifying
information on the shows’ messages; 6) special content pages, i.e., on
election-related issues, World Youth Day, papal visits, etc.; 7) spiritual
resources – from Church documents and prayers to “holy reminders”
that can be purchased and pilgrimage information, as well as 8) Catho-
lic news of the day.
211
B. Media
212
B.2. EWTN – Eternal Word Television Network
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213
B.3. The Southern Cross - Newspaper
Contact
Name of the institution: The Southern Cross, South Africa’s national Catholic weekly
Website address: www.scross.co.za
Case’s author: Michail Rassool
Role/position: Staff writer
Abstract
The Southern Cross website, which has existed since 2003, a rela-
tively late entry into the world of electronic publishing for a newspaper
that had existed for more than 80 years, does not have a dedicated
team running it because it does not have the financial resources to set
up such a facility. Nor is it updated as regularly as it ideally should be,
for these very reasons. Content and look are usually the product of col-
laboration between The Southern Cross editor Günther Simmermacher
and a web design consultant.
The Institution
214
B.3. The Southern Cross - Newspaper
Cape Town, served two terms as editor (the second served concur-
rently with his Cape Town archiepiscopate).
This started changing when former priest Michael Shackleton
(who as priest was once Cardinal McCann’s secretary, accompanying
him to Rome to attend the Second Vatican Council) was appointed
editor in 1995. Sources say the move was not considered particularly
radical because it was believed that since Shackleton had been a priest
and still functioned as a theologian, he knew all the forms and content,
which he certainly did and still does.
This atmosphere changed at the end of 2000, when the then 34-
year-old dynamo Simmermacher, who had been Shackleton’s manag-
ing editor, took over the editorship of the newspaper and set about
implementing his own vision and ideas of where the newspaper could
go. But, naturally, these are things that cannot be achieved without
consultation, without the approval of one’s board of directors, share-
holders, or even one’s newspapers readers. The ideas of readers – that
is, those who responded to a readership survey conducted in 2000
– were factored into considerable changes that were being made to the
newspaper, a prelude to starting a website.
Under the new regime, a whole new look was given to The South-
ern Cross, in which more updated standards of newspaper design were
employed, with content that reflected what the newspaper’s readers
– theologians, bishops, priests, religious, laypeople, and so on – said
they would like to see in it. It emphasized the way in which the Church
was responding to current affairs, or the difference it was making to
the lives of the poor and marginalized, of those with HIV/Aids, and
so on. More emphasis was also placed on presenting the lay Catholic
perspective on a range of issues – from the evangelical, theological,
the political and the ongoing fight for equity and social justice, to the
domestic (that is, family life). It was also felt the newspaper should be a
more dynamic forum for debate, with more diverse opinions expressed
by the newspaper’s correspondents being represented in it, not exclud-
ing those whose opinions perhaps veered a bit too far away from the
teachings of the magisterium.
According to Simmermacher, this provided the ideal environment
for starting a website, to give a wider audience a sense of The Southern
215
B. Media
216
B.3. The Southern Cross - Newspaper
217
B. Media
218
B.3. The Southern Cross - Newspaper
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219
B.4. Zenit - News Agency
Contact
Name of the Institution: Zenit News Agency
Website address: www.zenit.org
Case’s author: Jesús Colina
Role/position: Director
Abstract
The Institution
220
B.4. Zenit - News Agency
221
B. Media
At the same time, they are aware that this richness is little known in the
information world. This motivates them to strive to bring this message
to the internet, in the greatest possible number of languages.
The agency aims to view the modern world through the mes-
sages of the Pope and the Holy See; tell about the happenings of the
Church; and inform about the topics, debates and events that are es-
pecially interesting to Christians worldwide. Our compass is the social
doctrine of the Church, summarized in the Compendium published by
the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.
222
B.4. Zenit - News Agency
link to Zenit’s site and it has a world traffic rank of 42,340 according
to Alexa.
Receiving Zenit by e-mail or by RSS, as well as navigating on its
web site, and using the search engine and the indexed archive is free
for those who intend to make personal, not professional, use of Zenit
materials. Given that personal use of Zenit is free, those who would
like to financially support the agency can do so by responding to the
invitation extended during the annual fund-raising campaign. How-
ever, the agency does charge a fee for those who make professional use
of Zenit (information services or organizations) and wish to reprint the
news articles.
Zenit news is reprinted by some 20,000 media sources. They are
quite varied: large and small television and radio channels, newspapers
and magazines, web pages, diocesan and parish bulletins and newslet-
ters. The same is true of organizations that use Zenit.
Our readers are just as diverse. Many of our readers are mission-
aries or people who live in strikingly difficult situations, with few re-
sources. Thanks to the fact that Zenit is free, direct and real-time news
is available to them and enables them to feel closer to the Church of
Rome. Moreover, we believe that the Catholic Church has great influ-
ence in forming public opinion at a worldwide level and plays an active
role in defining social and global geopolitical tendencies. The Church’s
voice cannot be ignored in analysis, debates and discussions that aim
for objectivity and plurality. Therefore, we believe that offering infor-
mation about religious themes and particularly about the activities and
positions of the Catholic Church, and doing it with professionalism, is
a service for all, regardless of individual religious beliefs.
223
B. Media
224
B.4. Zenit - News Agency
tion. For example, a story originating from the English edition on the
experience of pilgrims at World Youth Day could be adapted for the
Portuguese edition by adding quotes from Brazilian youth attending
the event.
Questions and special situations are addressed in this process
through a system of exchanging e-mails. One editor with a particularly
interesting story of universal interest will often send the story directly
to the other editors suggesting they consider it for publication. Zenit’s
general director, Jesús Colina, will also often send stories of particular
interest to the editions highlighting its importance.
Editorial and strategic planning meetings are held as needed
through teleconferencing, and once a year the general organizational
meeting of all Zenit’s editors is held in Rome. At that meeting the
previous year’s work is reviewed, the work for the next year is planned,
and the editors are able to meet each other face-to-face (often for the
first time).
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225
B.5. Our Sunday Visitor -
Publishing Company
Contact
Name of the Institution: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division
Website address: www.osv.com
Case’s author: Greg Erlandson
Role/position: President and Publisher
Abstract
The Institution
For almost 100 years, Our Sunday Visitor has been one of the
largest Catholic publishers in the United States. Best known for the
Our Sunday Visitor (OSV) newsweekly, it has more than 500 active
book titles, five other periodicals, and a wide variety of religious educa-
tion and parish resources.
It serves three primary customer groups – Catholic parishes/dio-
ceses, retail book vendors and individual Catholics – with timely, well-
produced and trustworthy materials to inform, catechize and inspire.
Its sister division is the largest producer of Catholic offering envelopes
in the United States. As a non-profit, self-owned organization, it also
donates sizeable funds every year to Catholic organizations around the
country.
Because of the transformative effect of the internet on communi-
cations and community, Our Sunday Visitor is steadily increasing its
web offerings and will soon be embarking on another major upgrade
of its site.
226
B.5. Our Sunday Visitor - Publishing Company
227
B. Media
228
B.5. Our Sunday Visitor - Publishing Company
229
B. Media
230
B.5. Our Sunday Visitor - Publishing Company
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231
B.6. Catholic.net - Internet Portal
Contact
Name of the Institution: Catholic.net Inc.
Website address: http://es.catholic.net
Case’s author: Lucrecia Rego de Planas
Role/position: International CEO
Abstract
The Institution
232
B.6. Catholic.net - Internet Portal
Catholic.net has been among the first Catholic portals in the in-
ternet, founded in 1995 by James Mullholland – graduated at the Mas-
sachusetts Institute of Technology on 1944 and founder of Hayden
Publishing in 1952 –, as a direct access to all the Catholic realities that
were arising in the web.
In 2000, in union with Zenit News Agency and other church or-
ganizations, the Spanish version of Catholic.net was born as a member
of the RIIAL (Red Informática de la Iglesia en América Latina), with
the mission to bring Jesus Christ’s message to all mankind around the
world, bringing a sure response to human quest and problems, giving
to the visitors true, deep and trustful information, as well as personal
orientation in any issue related with the Catholic faith and everyday
life.
Catholic.net manages a large documental base with more than
30,000 documents, distributed along 12 thematic sections and 12 vir-
tual communities. It has established more than 5,000 strategic alli-
ances with other Catholic sites (although numbers grows daily). Visits
ascend to more than 4,000,000 per month and the various mailing lists
have more than 1,500,000 double opt-in subscribers.
That’s how Catholic.net has achieved the goal of joining the evan-
gelization efforts of most of the charismas inside the Catholic Church
and became to be recognized as a reference point in doctrine and mo-
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B. Media
234
B.6. Catholic.net - Internet Portal
235
B. Media
236
B.6. Catholic.net - Internet Portal
237
B. Media
Table 20.
Monthly costs of catholic.net (in dollars)
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238
Concluding Remarks
239
Concluding Remarks
and coping with the internet. From different perspectives, with a di-
versity of resources, all the cases presented in these pages have shown
that the Catholic Church has not remained behind in using new infor-
mation and communication technologies and in putting them at the
service of its own mission.
Opposite to what some stereotypes about the Church may portray
– conservative and reluctant to progress –, it has incorporated the tools
and potentialities of the internet to its daily activities. The future is
uncertain, but the Church is not renouncing to it. Certainly, when
speaking of the activity of Catholics in the internet, the dynamism of
singular individuals will be always ahead of what “official” institutions
can do, but this happens in all the spheres of social life: politics, econ-
omy, entertainment… Nevertheless, recognizing the role of singular
Catholics, the aim of this book has been that of presenting the institu-
tional perspective of Church’s internet activity. For that reason, several
representative organizations have been selected. Obviously, it was not
possible to include the whole variety of Catholic Church institutions
and the authors apologize for that. However, the cases presented here,
as well as the in-depth studies that introduce the book, are – in our
opinion – sufficient to provide a rich perspective on what’s going on in
Church’s institutional activities with regard to the net.
Cases have shown, first, that the field studied is very important
– whether in figures, interest, activities or news. They also prove that
there are very different levels of maturity among religious bodies when
it comes to online communication, due to different culture, back-
grounds, concerned/target publics, and resources. As a consequence,
“literary genres” of Church online communication are just forming (in
this regard, a significant step has been done with chapters 2 and 3, to
define the scope, contents & services and strategies of diocesan web-
sites).
What the whole book brings necessarily up is a need for more
studies about users: who are they? What do they want? The chapter
about journalists is very promising in this regard.
In fact, the current trend towards more interaction and social net-
working (web 2.0) in religious online communication would require a
volume 2.0… Or even more: the creation of a permanent observatory
onto this field of communication.
240
Concluding Remarks
The authors
241
References
Online references have been checked in February 2009.
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