The Catholic Truth Society's website is a mostly unremarkable corner of the internet, so that when I went to order one of their titles I was surprised to discover the most comprehensive list of titles I have ever encountered in a website's checkout. It starts off with the usual, "Mr., Mrs., Miss, Ms." and then adds in a couple of others that one might reasonably expect to find on the website of a Catholic publishing company, such as "Father" and "Sister." Pretty soon, however, it starts to look like they're really trying to cover all their bases. There are a lot of ecclesiatical titles which one would almost (but not quite) expect of them, up to and including "Cardinal" (the Pope, presumably, having secretaries to do his online ordering for him). "Ambassador" is a bit of a surprise. There is "Baroness" but not baron and both "Lord" and "Lady." Best of all, they have an option for "Prince." The only glaring omission, I feel, is for "other." Perhaps they feel their list is sufficiently comprehensive as to render it unnecessary.
Showing posts with label the Internet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the Internet. Show all posts
Sunday, 27 November 2011
Friday, 21 October 2011
Parish Websites
The Pope, I understand, has quite frequently mentioned that the Church ought to be tech-savvy and capable of getting the good new of the Gospel out into cyberspace. The last time something this important happened to the written word was with the invention of the printing press.
What's less exciting than this new opportunity for evangelism, but I think just as important, is that churches get better at putting out basic practical information. I'm currently trying to plan my weekend, which will be spent mostly travelling, in such a way that I can hopefully still make my Sunday obligation and I am immensely pleased to have discovered that both churches I am likely to be near enough to attend have decent websites which give me Mass times and such.
In the past I have tried to find Mass times in other parts of the country whilst travelling and have found that parish websites are frequently unhelpful or non-existent. This, I believe, will be a generational thing. As the cohort of priests to whom computers are alien makes way for the priests who grew up with the internet, this will naturally be sorted out. Of course even taking the long view of things it is still frustrating when one finds a parish whose website is not so helpful.
What's less exciting than this new opportunity for evangelism, but I think just as important, is that churches get better at putting out basic practical information. I'm currently trying to plan my weekend, which will be spent mostly travelling, in such a way that I can hopefully still make my Sunday obligation and I am immensely pleased to have discovered that both churches I am likely to be near enough to attend have decent websites which give me Mass times and such.
In the past I have tried to find Mass times in other parts of the country whilst travelling and have found that parish websites are frequently unhelpful or non-existent. This, I believe, will be a generational thing. As the cohort of priests to whom computers are alien makes way for the priests who grew up with the internet, this will naturally be sorted out. Of course even taking the long view of things it is still frustrating when one finds a parish whose website is not so helpful.
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