Reach out and Touch Faith, Awearness Blog, April 21, 2008

Reach out and Touch Faith

Awearness Blog
April 21, 2008

http://awearnessblog.com/2008/04/reach-out-and-touch-faith.php

It is clear that the Catholic Church is under attack: In addition to the damage caused by the sex abuse scandal, American churches face a consistent dwindling number of priests as well as members. A recent study by Georgetown University found that a third of the 64 million US Catholics never attend mass. Additionally, the divide between the church's teachings and people's beliefs is growing. Closer to home, the grammar school that my entire family attended in Greenwich Village closed this past year as did several others across New York City.

One would have to believe that the church is aware of these alarming statistics. A great deal of the Pope's time during his visit to the US was spent addressing and apologizing for certain abuses by the Catholic Church. "it is a great suffering for the church in the United States, for the church in general and for me personally that this could happen', Benedict said. So now what? The Pope and his entourage will fly back to Rome, to Vatican City and do what?

Let me start off by saying that I am Catholic and have decided to raise my family in the same tradition but I continue to question that decision every time another sacrament is on the schedule for my children. It's a shame, my upbringing in the Catholic religion has been rewarding for many reasons. However, the church's ignorance and unwillingness to evolve with the times and environment is creating an unsure future. Sure, we're always going to debate the Church's stance on abortion, the morality of birth control or the ordination or women but these are big issues and cornerstones of the religion. However, the church can start to leverage the strength of contemporary communication to better reach its flock, create dialogue - reconnect and rebuild these relationships as well as its numbers.

Google 'Catholic Church' and you get a wikipedia definition and other history links. What you should get is a link to the Church's interactive web site with a wealth of resources as broad and as geo-targeted as the Church could afford to build (and after being to the Vatican a few years back, I can tell you the church most definitely has the financial means to create the most definitive resource for its members in the world.) Think about it, connecting Catholics all over the world, daily personalized communication for members, weekly webcasts from different churches around the world, community links and specialized blogs. There could be newsgroups and other social networking communities, a Faithbook or PiousSpace (you get the idea). Podcasts could incorporate music as well as encyclicals and other rich church teachings. While we're at it, regular communication from the Pope himself would be nice. No worries either - there could be a virtual collection box so the church continues to bring in revenue.

Pope Benedict, we were so happy to have you visit - please come back anytime but we need you to be a true leader of this faith and start thinking critically and modernize your approach to your Church. I'm pretty sure if Jesus Christ was alive today (in human form), he would have a gmail account.