An Italian priest who advises the Vatican on social media issues developed an iPad application, available in July, for priests to use at the altar during Roman Catholic Masses, The Associated Press reported Friday, June 18, 2010.
The application is an e-missal, a digital version of the hallowed tome containing the prose and songs used by priests around the world, according to the AP.
Local parishes and priests are excited about the application’s release, said Bill Glover, the chief information officer for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, because it is another step forward into the digital realm for the Catholic Church.
Glover has worked for the archdiocese for eleven years and oversees an IT staff of more than a dozen people.
Three weeks ago Glover attended the Diocesan Information Systems Conference, an annual gathering of the people who keep information flowing in the North American Catholic community.
Representatives from 65 dioceses — regional districts governed by a bishop — attended this year’s conference in Toronto, Glover said.
Conference attendees discussed how to manage human resource and financial databases, Glover said.
Data-management software is particularly important to the Archdiocese of Baltimore, which employs thousands of people in churches, schools and community centers, Glover said.
But there was also a focus at the conference on how to spread positive messages about the Catholic Church with new media like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, Glover said.
In May, a directive from the Vatican was released instructing priests to use new technologies to evangelize, Glover said. The directive was part of the Catholic Church’s World Communications Day, an annual event for Catholic officials to focus attention on communicating with their congregations.
Using new technologies to evangelize has been a focus of Archbishop Edwin Frederick O’Brien’s since he began leading the Archdiocese of Baltimore 2 1/2 years ago, Glover said.
O’Brien uses his iPhone constantly to communicate with members of the Maryland Catholic community, Glover said.
The Archdiocese of Baltimore is becoming a leader in new media technology among U.S. dioceses, Glover said.
New media applications are a simpler way for people to become introduced to or re-integrated into the Catholic faith, Glover said.
The Internet and mobile applications provide a “less intrusive, safer” method for people to connect with a faith community, Glover said. It can be anxiety-inducing to go into any religious building for the first time, he said.
People “feel more comfortable” connecting digitally with a parish before actually stepping into a church, Glover said.
During the process of developing the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s website Glover gets in the mindset of an architect constructing a brick-and-mortar church.
“What would that be like to build a cathedral that serves 25,000 visitors each month?” Glover asks himself when deciding the functions of a religious website with tens of thousands unique users each month.
The Catholic Church can still do more to be technologically savvy, Glover said.
Although there are nearly 200 dioceses in the United States, only one iPhone application has been developed by dioceses, Glover said.
That application, iFaith, is a social media application that allows users to search for Mass times and locations, receive news updates and view information about events in a particular diocese.
The Archdiocese of New Orleans and the Archdiocese of Baltimore spearheaded development of iFaith, Glover said.
iBreviary, an iPhone encyclopedia of Catholic prayers, was released in 2008 by the same priest who created the e-missal application.
Read the AP article:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jYyi_JzRHGwWB5nI7JCWs8suJ4dgD9GDV7180
Visit the Diocesan Information Systems Conference website:
http://www.discinfo.org/
Read Pope Benedict XVI’s World Communications Day Letter, “The Priest and Pastoral Ministry in a Digital World: New Media at the Service of the Word”:
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/communications/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20100124_44th-world-communications-day_en.html
Visit the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s website:
http://www.archbalt.org/
iBreviary Application:
http://ibreviary.com/index.html
iFaith from iTunes:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ifaith/id308132299?mt=8
