Italian state-controlled energy provider electricity company Enel will be the first enterprise to advertise its services via Vatican Radio, beginning on July 6.

“We are proud to have been chosen as the first advertiser on one of the world’s most widely broadcast radio stations,” Enel’s chairman Piero Gnudi said at the Vatican newsconference announcing the deal.

In recent times, huge commericial advertisements became more and more frequent on scaffolding during repairs on buildings around St. Peter’s Square.

Source: De Morgen | Earth Times

What do you think? Post your comments below.

Here is the result of that crowdsourcing experiment, with some great gems:

• Message of pope Benedict XVI for Lent 2009
• Vatican website for Lent 2009
• USCCB Lent Resources
• Busted Halo’s Lenten Calendar
• EWTN Lenten Reflections Calendar
• Online Retreat for Women
• Pray-as-you-go: music, scripture and some questions for reflection
• Stations Churches of Rome
• Resource from Catholic Relief Services offering weekly country focus for fasting, praying and almsgiving
• Catholic Online page for Lent
• Audio homilies (will also be on itunes) and reflections
• Universalis.com - the Daily Office
• Loyola Press Lent Resources
• Weekly Lenten Radio Retreat with various U.S. Bishops
• Irish Jesuits, 10 min daily reflection. Including a lenten retreat
• Lent overview
• Lenten Activities for Children
• 3 minute retreats
• Christ’s Passion for you: A Virtual Retreat
• Lent 2009 on Creighton University’s Online Retreat Page
• Online Lenten retreat on Godzdogz, the website of the Dominican studentes at Blackfriars (UK)
• Stations of the Cross video by children at Holy Cross Catholic School
• Food for the Poor - daily scripture and daily activity/offering
• All About Lent: Lent History, Information, Prayers, Resources, Traditions, & More
• Lent and Easter in the Domestic Church interview on Catholic Spotlight
• Stations of the Cross dedicated to the victims of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, written for Pax Christi USA
• www.fortydaysofpraise.com, featuring an original Catholic praise and worship song each day throughout Lent

Do you know any other good, original (non commercial) Catholic Lent resources on the web not listed here? Post them in the comments!

Lindsey writes: “I’m not Catholic, but every year when friends and family give up wine, cheese, or bad TV shows for the 40 days of Lent, I get into an ascetic spirit.”

“I think maybe I do need a break from Facebook. Checking Facebook first thing in the morning, all day long, and just one more time after I brush my teeth is probably not the best use of my time. My children, my marriage, and my houseplants need me more than that guy I met one summer in art school.”

Lindsey signals a trend this year of Catholics and other Christians pledging to give up Facebook, Twitter or the Internet all together to free up time for more spiritual activities.

However, says Lindsey, “a sudden break from your social network – virtual or otherwise – creates a social minefield for anyone concerned with online manners. With more than 175 million active users on Facebook, at least one or two will want to “friend” you in the next 40 days. What to do?

Read Lindsey’s five tips for anyone wanting to go “Facebook cold turkey”: article

What do you think of this new trend? Post your comments below!

BTW: I’m not giving up Facebook for Lent, it’s an important tool to communicate with my audience. I’m not giving up talking, preaching or podcasting either

Thanks to Steve Marquez for the link to the article on CNet!

Ironically, Google had just started offering an offline option of their email service, where you can work on your email without being online. ‘Why should I?’ was my first thought. ‘Why didn’t I’ is what I’m thinking now!

So you can’t reach your inbox. What to do now? Here are some tips:

1. Work on your todo list. Without the distraction of new emails popping up, you can finally focus on those urgent tasks that you have been procrastinating for way too long now.

2. Use a wordprocessor to write important emails in advance. Do you have to send important information via email today? Use wordpad, Word or any wordprocessor to write those emails in advance and store them on your computer until you can send them out.

3. Use Twitter, your Facebook page and your blog or website to inform your friends that you can’t receive emails. Let them know other ways in which they can reach you. Like the good old telephone. Or an alternative, non-google email address.

4. To avoid trouble in the future, set up your own domain, and redirect email to another service when Gmail goes down again in the future. If your email address is ‘yourname@yourdomain.com’, and you can modify where that email is forwarded to, you wouldn’t be in trouble now!

5. Sit back, relax. Google is probably working very hard to solve this problem. Go outside for a walk, breathe. Look at the real clouds, now that your cloud applications are no longer working. Thank God for all the other low-tech or no-tech means we have to communicate with each other!

Any other tips? Alternatives to Gmail or Google? Post them in the comments below!

“It’s a touchy subject,” said Maher, “but some day we all do have confront the notion that our silly gods cost the world too greatly. But there I go ruining the ending.“

It’s a touchy thing to do, shamelessly plugging your own documentary while sneering at the Academy members. Maher might have ruined his chances of being invited a second time by the Academy.

Fr. Robert Barron posted an excellent comment on Maher’s ‘Religulous’ on YouTube. The priest vs. the documentary maker.  Who is the silly one? You decide.

You can now even follow the U.S.  bishops via Twitter. USCCB Media Relations represent the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to the media and the media to the bishops.

On twitter.com/usccbmedia, you can read important news updates straight from the bishops, like today’s nomination of Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan as the new archbishop of New York, the most prominent post in U.S. Church.

At the moment of posting this article, only 62 people are following the US bishops on Twitter, but something tells me that this number will rapidly increase in the following days!

Fr. Roderick (twitter.com/fatherroderick)

Thanks to twitter.com/whoisright for twittering the news

Fr. Federico Lombardi recentely spoke at a meeting of the communications commission for the Spanish bishops’ conference about Catholic communication. Zenit.org posted a lengthy translation of his talk that you can read here. In this article, I want to highlight what Fr. Lombardi said about community building and about the role of Vatican communication.

Communication builds community

The instruments of Catholic social communication are essential instruments for the building of the Christian community and of the wider human community.

The importance to invest in communication

Communication -above all in the Church - is a value that requires energy and entails costs, but which rarely generates revenues. In this connection it is necessary to help our superiors to have a long view, to keep in mind that there are returns and results that are not monetary but important, so that it is worthwhile to invest and spend, otherwise they will not be obtained.

Communication, both as information and as circulation of other messages, testimonies, further reflection, etc. must be at the service of ecclesial communion.

Good Catholic communication is both local and universal

Good communication in the Church needs the integration of the different levels of communication, each one of which is necessary, and they must be complementary among themselves: the local level (parochial or diocesan), the intermediary level (normally national) and the universal level.

The role of Vatican communications

The function of the Vatican means of communication must be seen as a service that attempts to integrate the indispensable communicative commitment of the local Churches. We do not consider ourselves absolutely able to embrace all communication in the Church, but we do consider ourselves as the central nucleus of a very great network spread out in a capillary way throughout the world.

Don’t be afraid!

At the end of his address, Fr. Lombardi quoted the last Apostolic Letter of John Paul II of 2005, dedicated precisely to the “Rapid Development of the Social Means of Communication”:

“Do not be afraid of the new technologies, as they are among the wonderful things (’Inter mirifica’) which God has placed at our disposition to discover, use, and make the truth known, including the truth on our dignity and destiny as his children, heirs of the Eternal Kingdom.

Do not be afraid of the world’s opposition! Jesus has assured us “I have overcome the world.”

Do not be afraid of your weakness and incapacity! The Divine Teacher has said: “I am with you all days until the end of the world.” Communicate the message of hope, of grace and of love of Christ, always maintaining alive, in this passing world, the eternal perspective of heaven”.

Fr. Federico Lombardi recentely spoke at a meeting of the communications commission for the Spanish bishops’ conference about Catholic communication. Zenit.org posted a lengthy translation of his talk that you can read here. In this article, I want to highlight what Fr. Lombardi said about crisis communication.

Fr. Lombardi spoke at length about “situations in which the Church is in difficulty because of grave scandals or accusations and is subjected to criticisms and attacks including in the media.” His advice (captions in bold are mine):

Anticipate problems, be prepared
The only truly effective measure is to anticipate the problems, to reduce the risks before they become a crisis and to prepare for the worst.

Go over your checklist
To determine, in the first place, what the message of the institution will be, to identify the public to which it is directed, to choose a spokesman and the appropriate channels of communication.

Your first attention should go to the victims on the ‘inside’
Do not only think of the “external” public, but before anything else of the “internal” workings of the Church, to keep its confidence. To think of the victims: the public will judge how the people have been treated who - voluntarily or not - have been harmed.

Place yourself in the perspective of the public
The perceptions of the public are important as is the truth of the events: the problem must be contemplated with the eyes of the public (there is a “tribunal of public opinion”) and if the people think there is a crisis, the crisis already exists.

Take the initiative
It is necessary to try to recover the initiative, to become a source of information, to collaborate with the authorities, and to respond to the media.

Speak with one voice
It is necessary to speak with one voice and to transmit consistent, clear, simple and repeated messages. Voices that contradict one another destroy the confidence of listeners.

Never lie
The key word is “credibility,” to always and only tell the truth. We must never lie, hide the truth or affirm things that are not confirmed. Only one lie destroys credibility.

Bring bad news immediately and in its entirety
Bad news must be communicated soonest and at once (not little by little). If there have been errors, we must ask for pardon. Only thus can we think of being forgiven.

Get legal advice if necessary
In regard to the section on “asking for pardon,” attention must also be paid to the juridical implications, so that responsibilities are not attributed that do not exist. In the most critical cases, a legal consultation is important.

Catholic Communications 101 by Fr. Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office.

Fr. Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office, must have experienced some of the busiest weeks of his life as a result of the Williamson controversy.

At a meeting of the communications commission for the Spanish bishops’ conference, Lombardi spoke about crisis communication and about catholic communication in general.

Zenit.org published a translation of his address. It’s a very interesting, but long text, so I will highlight the most important recommendations for Catholic communicators in three separate articles. I added section titles in bold to facilitate reading.

Adopt a positive attitude towards social communications

The Church has always been a communicator; proclamation is part of her very nature. After many centuries, the press rapidly became the essential way for the proclamation. Finally, the last century marked the advent and massive diffusion of new instruments of communication: cinema, radio, television, electronic communication through the Internet, e-mails, etc. The Church has attempted to use these new ways to carry out her mission in her various realms.

The Church’s documents [...] reflect a positive point of view -we can even say optimistic -on the development of social communications and the possibilities they offer to put the Church’s mission into practice.

Use the media for evangelization and community building

I believe we must share this attitude and try to cultivate it. Hence, my advice is not to have a fearful attitude or one of negative prejudice towards social communications and their agents, but to do everything possible to take advantage of the apostolic possibilities in the use of the instruments of communication, in two main directions in order to serve them:

- The proclamation of the Gospel and the message of the Church.
- The building of communion and of the ecclesial community.

According to Fr. Lombardi, it’s our duty to try to reach out via the media:

We all know that today there is a great number of people who are not reached directly by the message of the Church, but who can be reached through the media.

Encourage new media, but don’t underestimate the importance of old media

The “traditional” media often retain their importance, and it would be absurd to put them aside, allowing oneself be carried away by the fascination of the new technologies, thus abandoning important segments of readers and listeners.

According to Fr. Lombardi we must be “prudent and realistic when evaluating the actual weight of the various media.” Even though websites can attract a sizeable audience, the reach of ‘traditional’ media is still much larger.

For example, the Czech Program has a much-visited Web page in relation to the Czech-speaking world, with close 300,000 visits in one year, around 1,000 a day. But the radiophonic program is re-transmitted by a Catholic broadcasting station that has between 50,000 and 90,000 listeners a day.

Allow grass-roots new media initiatives by the younger generation

Many young people today use several ways of communication, through the Internet, ipods or mobile phones, etc. And there are full tendencies and great development in this field. We must be able to tap them and find them in these new ways of communication, offering them signs of our presence and answers to their questions or needs. This year’s message for the World Day of Social Communications is a strong encouragement in this direction.

The presence of the catholic church in new media is initiated by the younger generation:

We have with us many capable young people, who can help us: we must encourage them to live their time with confidence and we must listen to their proposals. I believe that in this way it is possible to move without agitation and with creativity in the world of the new media. In my case, the new media - for example, starting the regular use of “podcasting,” the production of “video news” and its publication on YouTube - have always come to me through my collaborators, and not from myself or my superiors.

Integrate new and traditional media

I try very hard to keep a continuity of evolution in communication and to give an image of integration of its services [..]

We have tried to amplify our presence by using YouTube, but in the home page of the Vatican’s channel on YouTube we have presented a link system that links the visitors in such a way that they have possibilities for more profound information, offered by the traditional media and their Web

Stay close to the world in which people live

What we communicate by request of the Church is not an abstract message, removed from the real life of the people, of our brothers and sisters among whom and for whom we live. [..] We see the proclamation of the Church closely related with the reality of the world; we do not think of a Catholic communication separated from a “profane” communication, what interest us is man, the whole man and his problems seen from the perspective of the Gospel.

Use clear and comprehensible language

One can never cease to insist on the use of clear, simple and comprehensible language, not to be abstract and complicated or specialized. It is true that at times the contents is complex and the addresses must be articulated, but in the end, if we want a message to “reach” and remain in the memory of those who listen to us, we must be able to indicate its central nucleus with simplicity and clarity.

An example is that of the recent, tormented case connected with the “Lefebvrites.” We have seen, once again, how difficult it is to make “excommunication” or the remission of excommunication understood. It seems to me that today the word “excommunication” is a bad word, which evokes ghosts of the Inquisition and strong emotions and which, therefore, must be presented with great care at the hour of using it.

Always tell the truth without delay

We must always be truthful and clear. Perhaps it is superfluous to mention it, but I do not think so. The truth must always be told, also when faced by difficult questions.

We must keep in mind that journalists must write news — it is their job, they are often obliged to do so if there is a topic that is being talked about — hence, if they do not receive answers that command attention, they naturally tend to develop hypotheses or conjectures, or give their own explanations. We must also realize that today information is a continuous live flow through the network and sites, and there is no time of day to respond, until tomorrow’s newspapers are printed. Therefore, the sooner the answer or correct information is given the better. In general, it is best to channel or guide information by being the first to give it, and not have to run after information that is incorrect.

Be yourself when you communicate

It is important “to be oneself” in communication. Each one has his own personality as communicator. Benedict XVI is different from John Paul II, but he also - as we see increasingly - is able to communicate with his style.

What is important is that it be seen that the one who communicates is a sincere person, who “answers” for what he says, able to transmit convictions and emotions, beyond a cold, bureaucratic and “clerical” language in the negative sense of the term. We must remember that witness and lived experience are generally much more effective messages than conceptual reasoning or long speeches: it is good that our communication also has elements and aspects of this nature.

Nurture your relationship with journalists

An aspect that I consider important to underline is the pastoral care of agents of communication, namely, the relationship with journalists and the personal quality of this relationship.

It is necessary to keep in mind that they are concrete persons, with their human and job problems, with the indications they receive from their directors and that, at times, strongly condition their liberty. To manifest care and understanding of them, to seek occasions to meet, including personally, to invite them to participate in common moments (feast of their patron St. Francis de Sales, World Day of Social Communications, the beginning and end of the pastoral year), in certain very important or dramatic events, or thanking them for the attention shown in certain important events for the ecclesial community. All these are ways to create greater harmony to facilitate mutual confidence and understanding.

In a following article, I will highlight Fr. Lombardi’s comments on communication in a situation of crisis.

Looking forward to meeting many new people at these events! Click here for a complete list of speaking engagements so far.