#NCCL2011 – Tech 101 Notes
Today at the NCCL 2011 conference I participated in a learning session on using social media to promote parish programs. My portion of the session focused on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn and how they are similar and different. For those that participated in the learning session, here is a list of resources (some of which I mentioned in the presentation) with more information on how these services can be used to enhance your ministry: Facebook Reaching Parishioners with Facebook – The video from my webinar on how to set up a parish Facebook page What is a Facebook Page and Should...
Read MoreTalkin’ ’bout my generation
For many years I was ambivalent about abortion in the United States. As a teenager, and even through college, I didn’t give it much thought becuase a) I’m a guy, and would never have to directly make that decision, and b) I never planned on getting a woman into the situation where I would need to help someone else make that decision. I knew the Church’s teachings on the matter and accepted them halfheartedly — like the vow of perpetual celibacy, I knew it wasn’t going to impact my life. Then, while I was in graduate school, I saw a statistic that jolted me out...
Read MoreYour Advent Homework
There are many ways in which the Church is out of step with our secular culture, but I think in no way more obvious than at this time of year. While the wider culture seeks to rush us towards Christmas (carols on the radio before Halloween? Really?!), the Church asks us to slow down and wait. While lights are strung and increasingly outrageous decorations are mounted on the front lawn, we light candles on the Advent wreath. While television commercials entice us to buy more and bigger, the Church points to a child born in poverty in a manager. This is a great time of year to reminder...
Read MorePassing on the Faith to the Net Generation – Footnotes and Further Reading
Last night I gave a short talk to my Knights of Columbus council on technology, catechesis, and young Catholics. I talked about some characteristics of young adults in general and Catholics in particular with an eye on how the Knights can be more inviting of young Catholic men. Here are a few of the resources I cited during my talk: Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants by Marc Prensky American Millennials: Generations Apart (poll by the Knights of Columbus in partnership with The Marist College Institute for Public Opinion) The New Faithful: Why Young Adults Are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy...
Read MoreDivine Butler? Don’t Bet On It
I recently finished reading Peter Kreeft’s book Back to Virtue. In this book, Kreeft claims that our current civilization may well be the weakest ever to grace the face of the planet. This is due, he says because we have lost the knowledge of virtue. This is not to say that we are less virtuous as a people than those that came before us. It is, rather, that We know more about what is less than ourselves but less about what is more than ourselves. When we act morally, we are better than our philosophy. Our ancestors were worse than theirs. Their problem was not living up to their principles....
Read More“I just don’t want to be limited by anything.”
This may well be the mantra of our age. It describes our attitude towards everything from food to television, children to transportation. (In fact, the direct quote above came from a recent episode of This Week in Tech during a conversation about bandwidth caps.) It is a message reinforced by the television we watch, the magazines we read and the ads that appear in both: get more, eat more, exercise more, have more fun. More. More. What this attitude fails to realize, of course, is that we are finite beings. Despite what we are told in ads, we cannot “have it all” — and even...
Read MoreA Good Childhood
An interesting new study out of England blames the break-up of families — and the cooresponding damage inflicted on children — on the “enlightened” self-interest of parents: The wellbeing of millions of children across Britain is being damaged by adults’ aggressive pursuit of personal success, a three-year inquiry by the Children’s Society concluded today. The society – a charity allied to the Church of England – blamed the problems of young people on “a belief among adults that the prime duty of the individual is to make the most of their own...
Read MoreLeadership vs. Authority
Living in Illinois the past month has given me reason to reflect on the nature of leadership. I’m sure everyone who isn’t living under a rock has heard about the recent… troubles of our governor. Even now the wheels are turning to force him from office and convict him of criminal wrong-doing. People are saying that he is no longer fit to lead, that no one will now follow his leadership, the state is looking for new leadership. We also hear about leadership within the Church. Sometimes its criticism of the bishops’ leadership or that a new pastor has been brought in the...
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