Pope Benedict Celebrates World Communications Day with outreach to youth via Facebook

I received a message from Fr Paolo Padrini asking me to share Pope2 You. Since I attended the Papal Youth Rally last April, and watched the magic of the Holy Father's interaction with youth in person, I have longed for a way to recapture the magic of their special bond. Pope2You is a vehicle for the Holy Father to keep in touch with the youth of the Church between World Youth Days and other youth gatherings.
The new media of Facebook, the iPhone, YouTube and Wikipedia are increasingly becoming the new forum where the Catholic Church dialogues with the world. As Pope Benedict XVI noted in his message for the 43rd annual World Communications Day, the Internet is a place where young people need to develop true friendships which spring from an encounter with the Risen Christ. With this awareness and the courage to enter into the world of social networks, the project Pope2You was started with the idea of helping these networks become authentic places of friendship and true dialogue.
Pope2You was created in collaboration with the Pontifical Council for Social Communications as an experiment in providing a new forum and channel of communication using the latest platforms. The Pope2You website provides a new way for Pope Benedict XVI to reach out to young people around the world. The site can be viewed in five languages and allows young people to learn more about the Church and Benedict XVI through his own writings, starting with the message for the 43rd World Communications Day. While the site aims to generate the interest of young people, it is also meant for people of all ages. It features news on the Catholic Church and details on the pastoral activities of Benedict XVI incorporating content from the Vatican’s YouTube channel. At the same time, a new application for the iPhone and iPod Touch has been created by the Catholic news agency H2Onews, with plans to add other mobile platforms later.
Pope2You also provides a gateway to a parallel world in Facebook with an application where you can create and send to your friends virtual postcards with the Pope’s own words, greetings and excerpts of his writings staring with this year’s World Communications Day message. Also, with the help of the Media Office of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, a special area has been created along the lines of a WIKI with suggestions on how to put into pastoral practice the Pope’s 2009 Message. These new applications highlight the latest example of the Church reaching out in new ways in the world of social networks – a forum where the Church can meet new people, make new friends, dialogue and offer solidarity.

Scranton Times-Tribune Article on Bishop Martino Fan Clubs on Facebook

Bishop Martino has gotten attention from the local media because of his Facebook pages, one of which was started by yours truly: Fans of Bishop Martino of Scranton PA. We have 69 members, and the other group, I support Bishop Martino, has 333 members.
I was contacted by the author of the article, but I am hard to pin down sometimes, so she went with the other pro-bishop group leader. It's a fair article, and shows the importance of using Facebook to organize pro-life Catholics.

"Rick Stevens, a new media assistant professor at the University of Colorado’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications, said social media outlets such as Facebook, which is free and available to anyone with an Internet connection, is becoming a common modes of grass roots organizing. He said the networking allows users to tailor their interests to be heard whose opinions are not likely to be polled systematically.“This is just a good utilization of a platform talking about what people feel, what they know, in a space they can share with other people,” Mr. Stevens said. “It’s a public expression of previously hidden opinion.”

Read the entire story at the Scranton Times.