From CNA with emphases and comments:
Holy See endorses study analyzing priests’ use of internet
Rome, Italy, Dec 4, 2009 / 03:01 pm (CNA).- An international research project is attempting to discover how priests perceive and use the internet. [It’ll NEVER catch on!] The project, titled PICTURE, hopes to contribute to more effective use of the Internet on the part of the Church.
PICTURE stands for “Priests – ICT – Use in their Religious Experience.” The project is being run by the NewMinE – New Media in Education Lab of the Università della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano with the collaboration of the School of Institutional Communications of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome. [I knew about this some time ago and did the survey. But I didn’t advertise it at the time.]
PICTURE hopes to sample more that 400,000 priests worldwide to understand how they view the medium of the internet and what use they have made of it.
Daniel Arasa, professor of Digital Communications at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross said in a press release that the project “represents an original contribution of university research to the priestly year declared by Benedict XVI.”
The results will be made public before the end of the Year for Priests, which is June 2010.
Priests are invited to participate in the study by filling out a questionnaire available in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. The survey can be found at http://www.pictureproject.info/?page_id=278
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The pastor where I go to mass has a facebook page! I think the internet is beginning to catch on with at least some of the clergy.
Father Z., you should really look into this internet thing!
wanda: nah… flash in the pan
Sounds like a waste of money to me.
I don’t know about this interweb thing…. Anything invented by Al Gore seems fishy to me.
A little bit on the sarcastic side, eh Fathers?
Yeah, we know you’re pulling our chains…we love all the ‘blogging padres’!
The net was important to my conversion. Faithful Catholic blogs and web pages are apostolates.
Ooh, good one Pater OSB! Scott W., Well said. Emphasis on the word ‘Faithful’.
I won’t try to gush too much, but since I found this blog, I am heartened and humbled at the good, faithful Catholic Priests and laity that are out there. I am so encouraged by all the teaching and comments shared and I am so grateful to know that there are so many who are zealous for the faith. Thank you for the opportunity to learn and to share our love for the Catholic Church and our ‘Catholic Identity.’
“Priests are invited to participate in the study by filling out a questionnaire available in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. The survey can be found at http://www.pictureproject.info/?page_id=278“
So, they decided to do a survey about internet usage by priests – and they put out there where it can be found only by those priests who know how to use the internet for more than reaching their e-mail provider? Wouldn’t there be some value in reaching out to those who make little or no use of the internet – to understand why?
In our nearby parishes, some priests are on Facebook and have Blackberries. Other priests don’t appear to have interest whatsoever in computers. One nearby pastor hates email and computers so much that his staff and church organizations are forced to use paper for everything they do.
Some priests attest that they have no time at all for getting on a computer – recently I spoke with a ‘youngish’ priest who is a family friend, his parish celebrates the EF, and is staunchly faithful. I mentioned to this tirelessly hardworking priest this Fr Z blog. He jovially said “You are the fourth person today to mention this blog to me, of which I had never heard. But I just don’t have time!”
I wonder if there is any mention in this study of the Catholic Distance University which has been doing online Catholic studies for years now. The director, Marianne, visited Rome years ago trying to drum up interest – she said it was a tough sell. The CDU has clergy on the faculty and support from every level of hierarchy here in the States. The courses grant Theological and Catechetical diplomas to students worldwide. http://www.cdu.edu