Better Idea: Downloadable "Ask a Catholic a Question" Free Handbook

Back in March I blogged about this great idea:

Ask a Catholic a Question began in the spring of 2007 to spread awareness of Catholic beliefs to students, from students. They answer questions from a steady stream of people most days when they appear in Academic Plaza. On days when a preacher is on campus stirring up polarizing views, the dichotomy between the two becomes immediately apparent.

Now it's an even better idea:

Because of the number of requests for information about our program, Ask A Catholic A Question, we received from other campus ministries, parishes, organizations, and individuals; we have written a manual - Ask A Catholic A Question Handbook: Evangelization On-Campus. It comes in both a downloadable format as well as a website.

You can check it out here.

Practical evangelizing is the best.

"Italian clergy to use inflatable church to minister to beachgoers"

Good grief:

Catholic nuns and priests in Italy have established a 98-foot-long inflatable church and a beach-convent to minister to vacationing beachgoers. Activities at the two movable venues will include opportunities to confess sins and to pray the Rosary, but not Mass.

The inflatable church will be set up on Saturday in the Molise region on the Adriatic Coast and will be staffed by priests who hear confessions, Reuters reports. (CNA)

Quote of the day material here:

The first attempt to use the church failed last month on the island of Sardinia due to strong winds.

Okay, I can't help myself. Here are more details:

A group of singers will also perform at the church late at night.

On the Mediterranean coast, nuns from a convent near Naples have moved to beach cabins to join vacationers saying the Rosary, with an adjoining altar set up under two tents.

“The concept of a beach-convent is something that is appreciated by vacationers and the nuns themselves," Father Antonio Rungi said to ANSA.

Italy’s larger cities empty in August, when Italians customarily holiday at the beach.

A related picture will constitute today's Photo Caption Call...

Web: I'm friends with a Bishop on Facebook

When I first heard the rumor that the new bishop of Little Rock, Arkansas had a profile on super-popular social networking site Facebook, I had to follow up on it to see if it was true.

Lo and behold, as of yesterday, I'm the Most Reverend Anthony Basil Taylor's friend ... on Facebook, that is {photo}.

Luckily, I wasn't tempted to ask him based on his profile picture if he was an Anglican Bishop, as the blogger at St. Monica's Kneeler harrowingly recounts.

Now, in all probability, the profile is administered by someone in the diocesan offices.

So, with that proviso in mind, let's take a look at the bishop's online Facebook profile. It includes, notably:

• A yahoo email address
• 388 friends (as of this posting)
• The "Help Fight Global Warming! Together we can make a Difference" application
• Someone left him a "bumper sticker" saying "Who's Awesome? You're Awesome!"
• The "We're Catholic" and "Send Catholic Gifts" applications
• He posts his weekly homilies, in English and Spanish
• He's part of one cause: "The Social Reign of Christ the King", and one blog network: "Immaculate Heart of Mary's Hermitage Report."
• He has 38 wallposts (he's got some catching up to do - I have 2100+)

I especially got a kick out of his Education & Work background....

I must quibble. "Employer" should be "Jesus Christ", "Holy Spirit" or, I guess, "Pope Benedict XVI."

But "Position: Bishop"? Okay, he's got me good there.

... welcome to the New Evangelization (?).

Video & Report: Catholics Come Home web innitiative results in 6,000 inquires!

Amy Welborn has described the web innitiative Catholics Come Home as a "group dedicated to reconnecting Catholics with their faith, with the byproduct of deepening the faith of all of us."

She continues: "These commercials are miles beyond the quality of most Catholic media efforts we see and are deeply substantive and do things, IMHO exactly right."

I agree with her, so much so that I made CCH my AmP website-of-the-month in June (I realize that we are now deep into July and I haven't updated it yet, no worries - it's coming).

Now Zenit reports that CCH's efforts have resulted in 6,000 inquires and reversions back to the Church:

For many who have left the Catholic Church, there is often a great desire to come home. However, fear and guilt often lead many to put off the gnawing decision to return to the Church. Not knowing where to turn, many who were once faithful feel lost and ashamed.

Tom Peterson, founder of Catholicscomehome.org, has found television and the Internet to be just the place to reach out to those wishing to come back to the Church.

Earlier this year Peterson tested his methods and ideas using an advertising campaign geared toward the 3.5 million who live in the Diocese of Phoenix.

More than 6,000 people inquired and came back to the Church via the Catholicscomehome.org Web site, and many more came back to Catholicism by reporting directly to a parish near their home. One priest reported that 16 people came to him for confession after they saw the television ad.

“One of the biggest surprises for us was the amount of inquiries from those who are not Catholic," said Peterson. "About one quarter of those expressing an interest in the Catholic Church are from those who have seen our commercials or visited our Web site and want to better understand the Catholic Church, or have actually made the decision to become Catholic.”

With results like this, it was frustrating when I first gave them press at the time of their roll-out that their videos were not accessible and able to be distributed through YouTube. This problem has been fixed to some degree, however, with the introduction of the official Catholics Come Home YouTube Channel. This is a very smart move for two reasons: 1) it's free advertising and 2) it allows the message to be easily and widely distributed.

Sadly, however, they've decided to disable the function of embedding these videos. I think this is a very poor decision and I hope it is reconsidered quickly. The vidoes are languishing at about between 1k-10k views. I know this blog alone could help boost those numbers if I were allowed to embed it. And imagine if major Catholic websites were to follow suit?

Please, make it easier for me and other Catholics to promote this video on the internet.

Video: Catholics Come Home

This video has been receiving alot of (merited) attention. It was also played prior to the Papal Mass this morning at Nationals Stadium on the big screen:

Their website: http://www.catholicscomehome.org/ - tell your non-practicing friends!

Article: "5 Reasons Muslims Convert"

From Christianity Today:

1. The lifestyle of Christians. Former Muslims cited the love that Christians exhibited in their relationships with non-Christians and their treatment of women as equals.
2. The power of God in answered prayers and healing. Experiences of God's supernatural work—especially important to folk Muslims who have a characteristic concern for power and blessings—increased after their conversions, according to the survey. Often dreams about Jesus were reported.
3. Dissatisfaction with the type of Islam they had experienced. Many expressed dissatisfaction with the Qur'an, emphasizing God's punishment over his love. Others cited Islamic militancy and the failure of Islamic law to transform society.
4. The spiritual truth in the Bible. Muslims are generally taught that the Torah, Psalms, and the Gospels are from God, but that they became corrupted. These Christian converts said, however, that the truth of God found in Scripture became compelling for them and key to their understanding of God's character.
5. Biblical teachings about the love of God. In the Qur'an, God's love is conditional, but God's love for all people was especially eye-opening for Muslims. These converts were moved by the love expressed through the life and teachings of Jesus. The next step for many Muslims was to become part of a fellowship of loving Christians.

A "sixth" reason that I often hear is the "Fatherhood of God". Islam teaches that Jesus Christ is not divine, and so God is not Father in relation to his Son. Subsequently, God cannot be said in any meaningful way to be our father, either. Knowing the paternal love of God the Father can help non-believers accept the revelation of God's Son.

Fr Aidan Nichols lays out plan to save Catholic Church in England

Damian Thompson of the UK Telegraph reports:

The Domican theologian Fr Aidan Nichols – Holy Smoke readers’ choice to succeed Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor at Westminster – has just published an ambitious plan to revive the wretchedly moribund English Catholic Church.

His new book The Realm: An Unfashionable Essay on the Conversion of England suggests that the bishops should vigorously convert people to Roman Catholicism. I can already hear the snooty splutters ("How reactionary! How inappropriate!") from the episcopal HQ at Eccleston Square, various bossy "trained liturgists" – and, of course, the Bitter Pill.

Now there's a novel idea. The Church? Evangelize?! How scandalous.

The title doesn't appear to be available in the U.S. at present. UK orders for now.