This is one of the sweetest ideas I’ve come across in a little while. The project is called OneBillionStories.com. The concept is simple.

Seth DeMoor is riding his bike from Florida to Colorado. Only this is no ordinary bike ride. This is a pilgrimage. And this is no ordinary pilgrimage. Seth is using new media to do it in a unique way that has never been done quite like this.

Ya see, this isn’t just about his story. It’s about the One Billion Catholic stories - of the one billion Catholics - presently living, breathing and walking about this giant rock. As Seth rides along, everywhere he goes he is capturing the Catholic stories he meets along the way on video. You can be a part of this...READ MORE

Every Thursday I’ve been taking a different quote from something the Church teaches about social communication or new media and trying to apply it. This week’s comes from an address Pope Benedict made to the Roman Curia last year:

“God’s loving care for all people in Christ must be expressed in the digital world not simply as an artifact from the past, or a learned theory, but as something concrete, present and engaging. Our pastoral presence in that world must thus serve to show our contemporaries, especially the many people in our day who experience uncertainty and confusion, ‘that God is near; that in Christ we all belong to one another’.” (Pope Benedict XVI, Address to the Roman...READ MORE

Right now, this very moment, you are being shaped. In fact, having read that last sentence, you will never be the same person again. Oh, look there, I did it again. I am molding you with my every key stroke. (BWAHAHAHAHAHA).

Of course this is true for every piece of information your senses take in. You are constantly being changed and affected by what you come in contact with. Every moment of your life you’re slightly different than the moment before. You change. See? You’re a different person now. And still different now. And even if that single difference verges on insignificant, it is the sum of those differences that end up making you who you are.

In the Christian life, this change...READ MORE

In my opinion, every Catholic organization can learn a lot from CatholicVote.org. Their message. Their approach. And especially their use of new media to communicate it.

You’ve probably seen some of their videos, most notably those from their “Life: Imagine the Potential” campaign. In fact, more than 2 million people watched them on YouTube alone. 

Here are three great things CatholicVote does extremely well:

1) Elegance - Their website is simply elegant. It is focused in purpose. It is beautifully designed. It is easy to use. And that makes for a powerfully successful website.

2) Truth in Charity - They masterfully use their website and videos to express a simple truth about our faith...READ MORE

In our enthusiastic leap into the world of new media, Pope Benedict gives us something very important to keep in mind:

“A pastoral presence in the world of digital communications, precisely because it brings us into contact with the followers of other religions, non-believers and people of every culture, requires sensitivity to those who do not believe, the disheartened and those who have a deep, unarticulated desire for enduring truth and the absolute. Just as the prophet Isaiah envisioned a house of prayer for all peoples (cf. Is 56:7), can we not see the web as also offering a space – like the “Court of the Gentiles” of the Temple of Jerusalem – for those who have not yet come...READ MORE

You don’t have to have any technical expertise or a theology degree to evangelize online. Just like in the offline world, God can powerfully use any of His creatures to reach people. Life and love on the digital continent is no different in this regard.

But upon entering this technologically intimidating mission field, where the rules are continually being written, it can be difficult to know where to begin. There is good news.

You don’t need a blog. You don’t need a lot of followers. You don’t need a national audience. You don’t have to have a website. You don’t have to come up with any great big idea. None of these are barriers to entry.

Don’t get me wrong. We desperately need...READ MORE

I was informed this morning (by one of my Twitter followers) about something cool that the South African Bishop Conference is doing this year. It’s called Church on the Ball.

Church on the Ball is an effort by the Catholic Church there to help celebrate the 2010 Soccer (“Football” for the rest of the world) World Cup. It will be held in South Africa this year (making it the first time the event has ever been held on the African continent). And it looks like the Catholic Church there is working hard to take advantage of this unique opportunity, particularly with this new media campaign.

One of the things I really liked on the site was how they list all of the stadiums that will be a part...READ MORE

The obsession of our culture over Social Media (see #2 here) is rooted in a good and natural human desire: Communion. We want to connect with other humans. We want to relate. We want to love. We are designed, as humans, to do just that.

“The desire for connectedness and the instinct for communication that are so obvious in contemporary culture are best understood as modern manifestations of the basic and enduring propensity of humans to reach beyond themselves and to seek communion with others. In reality, when we open ourselves to others, we are fulfilling our deepest need and becoming more fully human. Loving is, in fact, what we are designed for by our Creator. Naturally, I am not...READ MORE