A Digital Strategy for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia

A Digital Strategy for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia Prepared for: Most Rev. Charles Chaput, Archbishop of Philadelphia Prepared by: Thomas A. Shakely 1229 Chestnut Street #228, Philadelphia, PA, 19107 tom@tomshakely.com

June 22, 2012

A Digital Strategy for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary

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Introduction

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The Present: A Survey of Current Realities, Opportunities, and Constraints

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The digital state of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and its parishes

A Strategy: An Approach for the Digital Diocese, Parish, and Community

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A framework of core goals and objectives

Implementation: A Digital Strategist for a Digital Strategy

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A digital strategist pilot position with 24- and 36-month triggers

A Roadmap: Crafting a Comprehensive Digital Plan for the Archdiocese

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An actionable, public, and transparent approach to digital evangelization

Case Study: NYC Digital and the Roadmap for the Digital City

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Case Study: Archdiocese of Boston’s Catholic Media Secretariat

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Case Study: Archdiocese of St. Louis’s Mobile App Strategy

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Appendix A: A Digital Strategy for American Catholic Dioceses

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Appendix B: Bishop Ron Herzog’s 2010 USCCB Social Media Address

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Appendix C: Bishop John Wester’s 2012 USCCB Communications Address

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Notes & Further Reading

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Objective Place Philadelphia as a leader among American dioceses both in terms of the brand and public image of the diocese and in terms of digital infrastructure and services.

Goals Catalyze the spirit of the New Evangelization by crafting a comprehensive plan — a digital roadmap — to meet the internal and external challenges of evangelization, faith formation, and retention using digital platforms and new media.

Solution The hiring of a digital strategist for the diocese as part of an 18-month pilot program to craft and implement such a roadmap, with benchmarks to continue the position through a second and third year.

A digital strategist, modeled after the Chief Digital Officers of the corporate, non-profit, and government worlds, would not replace any office or system, but rather would exist as a service leader to survey, partner, and implement high level strategies.

Digital Roadmap The Church must engage the digital space in an integrated and non-fragmented way to communicate the story of salvation and advance her narrative, lest her voice be absent to a generation of young people, parents, and the wider culture.

Digital tools represent a powerful means to tell the story of Christ and the Church, and to move aggressively at low cost across high yield platforms. A digital roadmap with strategic goals and objectives can enculturate the spirit of the New Evangelization, communicating our story in ever fresher ways.

• Archdiocese Internals: Equipping offices to be digitally literate for communication • Profile of Archbishop Chaput: Equipping him to preach, sanctify, and govern online • Digital Infrastructure: Creating perpetual means for digital encounters with the Church • Parish Services: Clarifying parish approaches to new media, literacy, and technology • Parishioner Tools: Opportunities for spiritual formation and sacramental encounters

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INTRODUCTION At present, the Catholic Church in America faces a series of challenges both existential and practicable that, taken as a whole, have damaged the health of the institutional Church and continue to degrade its teaching authority to the detriment of the mission entrusted to her by Christ.

The Church, by God’s grace, persists through the passing of time. Each period of Church history been characterized by its own challenges and opportunities. Our own urgent question cuts to the heart of the Church’s ministry in our culture: Will we be present and alive in digital spaces of our world?

In a digital age, with so many living the majority of their lives in the digital space, on what we call the “digital continent,” the challenge for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia is how to meet the men and women who are calling the digital continent home. In every age, Catholic missionaries have brought the virtue and truths of our faith to a people searching for meaning and purpose.

The challenge today is not journeying to a foreign land, but into the digital space.

This proposed digital strategy is not about the latest gadget or fad, rather it is about confronting the current void of joy and authenticity on the digital continent. In place of this void, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has an opportunity to bring the fullness of the Gospel and transform lives with the message of Jesus Christ.

The challenge today is not journeying to a foreign land, but into the digital space.

From the moment of the Ascension of our Lord, disciples have brought the Gospel to every continent.

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has the opportunity to continue that proud tradition by effectively bringing the Gospel to the digital continent, a home to countless millions who still converse, still seek to clarify thought, still search for truth about life, and daily form relationships of profound meaning even leading to religious vocation and marriage.

The digital continent — it is a place where the Church must be.

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I. THE PRESENT: A SURVEY OF CURRENT REALITIES, OPPORTUNITIES, AND CONSTRAINTS “Every second,” reports Dartmouth’s Center for Digital Strategies, 1 “two new blogs are created, seven PCs are sold, 2.2 million emails are sent, 520 links are clicked, 1,157 videos are viewed on YouTube, 31,000 text messages are sent.” It’s easy to become overwhelmed by these numbers, and even easier to give up on assessing their meaning. What’s really being said, though, is that people are connecting more rapidly and more directly (and thus more intimately) than ever before.

What does this mean for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia as a cultural influencer in these second-by-second connections? What is the state of the Archdiocesan parishes’ digital proficiency with so many connecting, speaking, and searching?

This section will serve as a preliminary overview of the state of the digital proficiency of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and its parishes. This overview is informed by a review of the Archdiocese’s digital brand position as well as an analysis of parish digital and social media.

The Archdiocese Level The Archdiocese primary portal, www.archphila.org has long been a strong repository for information and resources. Obvious progress has also been made in recent years with audio and video as well as the establishment of the Archdiocese on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. The Cathedral Basilica, for instance, represents the future with Msgr. Arthur Rodgers’ video welcome message 2 and its intuitive design and information aesthetic.

On the whole, though, the Archdiocese site lacks consistency in presenting key content it wants the visitor to engage with, i.e., an e-mail signup form for regular news

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messages or Holy Day reminders that would allow a means for the diocese to directly correspond with the most engaged visitors.

“Who is speaking to me? Who will I be speaking to? What do I want to tell them?” These are questions we must ask in our approach to meeting the challenges of digital communication.

Thus, a stronger emphasis on core competencies — on things the Archdiocese can and does do better than any other level within the Church — would mean a focus on areas like Archbishop Chaput, vocations, and church and school communities with an emphasis on audio and video as well as ongoing, personal engagement across a variety of in-person and digital platforms.

There remains healthy room for acceleration in terms of the aesthetic, news, and evangelization aspects of the Archdiocese web presence, as well as its effectiveness in building community and networking through social media and on its own website.

Simply put, this means becoming an even more vibrant home for diverse content to engage wider audiences than are sought presently.

The Parish Level On the parish level there are promising signs of advancement in digital communications, though there remains significant opportunity in accelerating and capitalizing on the state of many parish web offerings. A preliminary analysis 3 of 42 parishes within Deaneries 3 and 7 underscores the promising but still underwhelming state of parish digital engagement in terms of news, relationships, and faith formation opportunities.

State of the Parishes Analysis of Deaneries 3 and 7 •

61% HTML/Web 1.0 websites

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24% CMS/Web 2.0 modern sites

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15% offer no website

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5% offer email newsletter

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12% present some type of video

The typical web visitor spends an average • 12% are present on Facebook of 48 seconds on a site before leaving. When a • 1 of 42 parishes uses Twitter site features video, visitors linger for an average of 5 minutes and 50 seconds.4 Sites with video are more than five times as effective as other sites in capturing time and interest. Yet only 5 of 42 parishes offer any type of video. This is one example of the importance of deploying new media effectively.

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Facebook is home to 900 million globally, 5 and yet only 5 of 42 parishes are engaging with their parishioners there. This, despite that 72 percent of all American internet users are active on Facebook, 6 with more than 50 percent of users logging in daily. Amazingly, 2011 Think Quarterly statistical data 7 indicates that “57 percent of people talk to people more online than they do in real life.”

Only one pastor uses Twitter out of 42 parishes examined. 8 This same pastor has become a Fox News Live contributor on the topics of faith, youth, and social media 9 even with a modest following of 240 persons to his profile. This should prove the tremendous opportunity (and low barrier to entry) for priests and staff looking to build influence in new ways quickly in the digital (and traditional news) world.

15%

24%

No parishes in Deanery 3 offer email correspondence, and only two in Deanery 7 e-mail their parish. This means approximately 95 percent of parishes have no way to quickly communicate with their parishioners in times of crisis, or even correspond regularly to engage irregularly attending members.

61%

Web 1.0 HTML Website Web 2.0 CMS Platform No Website

Critically, only 24 percent of the parishes surveyed have modern “Content Management System”-driven websites. Without content management systems, 10 which allow sites to be edited simply via the web and without technical, coding, or other knowledge, the vast majority of parishes still operate with (at best) a single webmaster as gatekeeper. This is not a modern approach, and limits access to department leaders, like Adult Faith Formation, or Directors of Religious Education, to be present on the web in a timely, efficient way.

There is an opportunity, based upon these findings, that an integrated approach be taken to the digital continent with an emphasis on specific strategic goals. To succeed, this approach would need to occur on the level of the Archdiocese, rather than on a parish-by-parish basis, or even on a departmental basis.

Catholics (and others curious about the faith) will see either “The Church” as a single entity, or encounter competing and conflicting voices. Crafting consistency in the Archdiocese digital identity will built value that translates into meaning and authority in relaying both the spiritual truth of Christ and the social mission of the faith.

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II. A STRATEGY: AN APPROACH FOR THE DIGITAL DIOCESE, PARISH, AND COMMUNITY Throughout the Gospels, Jesus interacts with people in an intimate way, because he understands that people desire intimacy. While some criticize the digital continent for avoiding intimacy, the evidence suggests that the lesson of successful social If the Archdiocese of networking is that constant, timely, one-on-one Philadelphia is to thrive engagement is critical to the health and legitimacy of institutions using this media. across the digital If the Archdiocese of Philadelphia is to spectrum, it will require thrive across the digital spectrum, it will a coherent strategy. require a coherent strategy. This means not simply an awareness of social networks, for instance, but learning to implement systems within the Archdiocese, within the departments of the Archdiocese, as well as within parish communities that will offer the opportunity to bring their ministry onto the digital continent. 11 This will require a change in culture as a new digital literacy is acquired A new digital literacy will within the Archdiocese.

Digital tools remain simply a means.

Any comprehensive digital strategy would need to be rooted in a firm sense of our theology in order to succeed.

enable us to nourish the souls of so many searching for meaning and purpose in life.

Success, here, means engaging practicing Catholics as well as presenting and framing the faith in a way that fosters contemplation and reflection among outsiders who, like generations before them, are searching for meaning and purpose in life.

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The Framework: Goals and Objectives For a strategic approach to fostering the digital presence of the Archdiocese and its parish communities it will be useful to identify our goals, and then work toward solutions by identifying practical objectives.

Goals 1. Centralizing and improving the digital culture and identity of the Archdiocese 2. Creating alignment between the strategies of the Archdiocese and the parishes 3. Fostering a culture of evangelization and engagement using digital platforms

Objectives • Archdiocese Internals: Equipping offices to be digitally literate for communication • Themes: staff communication, brand narrative, public voice • Profile of Archbishop Chaput: Equipping him to preach, sanctify, and govern online • Themes: official website, original content, social media, video • Digital Infrastructure: Creating perpetual means for digital encounters with the Church • Themes: diocese wiki, member/alumni website, e-mail newsletter, giving • Parish Services: Clarifying parish approaches to new media, literacy, and technology • Themes: web workshops, training, streaming, wifi, published histories, videos • Parishioner Tools: Opportunities for spiritual formation and sacramental encounters • Themes: diocese-wide mobile app, mobile notifications, reminders By thinking in terms of these strategic goals and actionable objectives, we can clarify our strategy — and perhaps even expand our conception of the responsibility of the diocese in the area of digital communication. In the next couple of pages, we’ll get into technical implications of these objectives and themes.

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Archdiocese Internals The public voice of an institution flows from the people who comprise it, and who form the ethos of the place. New and social media has been particularly challenging for the Church, it seems likely, because of its egalitarian and grassroots nature..12 Yet these same platforms present an opportunity for those within to both communicate more fluidly in private and adopt a public posture that speaks well of the faith.

Departments within the Archdiocese, such as the Office for Life, Family, and Laity, the Office for Divine Worship, and others could be assisted in meeting the goals of their mission by meeting people on the digital continent. Internal e-mail lists remain critical for any large institution, but social platforms like Yammer, which create company-driven, private social networks on mobile devices, are an attractive way to communicate both more rapidly, and in a way that others within your network (the Archdiocese) can see and participate in conversations — fostering transparency and clarity all through mobile devices.

Increasing numbers of people are using social platforms in their daily lives, and this presents an opportunity for the Archdiocese to meet Catholics where they are present. Meetup.com, for instance, represents a means for diocese divisions to organize and host events, all while doing so publicly over the web in a way that activity can be promoted across a broad spectrum, rather than insularly through print bulletins.

An informal public blog driven by regular content from different offices could also do much to foster an attractive narrative without being a heavy burden.

Platforms: Yammer, Meetup, Eventbrite, WordPress, Tumblr Profile of Archbishop Chaput Central to the identity of our Church is the identity of our bishop, who serves as the shepherd for God’s people. Archbishop Charles Chaput is one of the chief public faces of the church in Philadelphia. As both a bishop and author he brings with him a devoted following from across the country, and will be increasingly relied upon as a strong, plainspoken voice both of and for the faithful.

As it has become standard for any author to maintain a website, and for major personalities to speak to their followers through multimedia, it makes sense to leverage Archbishop Chaput’s existing schedule and commitments, and create a central web presence featuring original video content, a Twitter and Foursquare presence, and

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potentially short written compilations as Kindle, Nook, and iBook publications. Short video clips from parish visits, for instance, or two minute professionally recorded video versions of Archbishop Chaput’s written column, would go a long way toward presenting content from existing commitments in a way that better leverages them for public impact and fostering a culture of transparency.

Platforms: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, SoundCloud, Foursquare, Tumblr Digital Infrastructure Creating permanent digital places for Catholics to congregate and for information to live in a refenceable, reliable format is a critical and under-appreciated challenge for all digital platforms. Where can one go to learn the history of the diocese, or about the personalities that have formed our Philadelphia churches and schools? An official diocese wiki, conveying history and relaying current events information in a human way (and especially for frequently searched Google phrases)Â would mean we would no longer need to cede our history to Wikipedia.

A diocese-wide e-mail newsletter, published on a regular schedule that creates expectation among recipients, would be an extremely low cost and potentially even higher impact tool than traditional print efforts. This newsletter would connect and form followers in a new way, building on the success of efforts like CatholicPhilly.com.

Further, a member/alumni website in the style of private club websites would allow Philadelphia Catholics to manage their own profile digitally, and represent a powerful means to network our people online.

Platforms: Wikispaces, MailChimp, Club Essential Parish Services The Church is most regularly experienced through her parishes, so any Archdiocese digital strategy would need to include parish services. Pastors are increasingly realizing the need to be present on the digital continent, however they need to be equipped for how to bring their parish to this new place. The process of equipping could mean workshops, regular webinar-style training sessions, individual consulting on all matter of new media, or it could involve comprehensive projects.

For instance, live-streaming the Mass 13 and other special events is low-cost and a beneficial way to introduce non-parishioners to sample the life of the parish. Live-

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streaming accounts could be set up and parishes trained on their use across entire counties or deaneries. An effort to roll out WiFi at parishes across the diocese would be eye-catching and forward looking way to build our digital infrastructure, as would an effort for each parish to publish a short 30-90 page book on the history of their parish, which could also become a revenue tool.

Or, imagine leveraging students interning to produce short 2-4 minute minidocumentaries on each parish every five years. This would be a tremendous way for parishes and schools to attract new members and also present our communities favorably through new media.

Platforms: Livestream, Citrix, YouTube, Skillshare, Lore Parishioner Tools For the typical parishioner, engagement with one’s church is limited to one of two realities: either there is no engagement outside of holidays — this is the 78 percent of professed Catholics who do not attend Mass 14 — or Catholic life is limited to Sunday mornings, with perhaps an occasional school or volunteer event.

There would be worth in building a diocese-wide mobile app that would allow Catholics (practicing and “cultural” alike) to connect on whatever level they’re prepared for, offering them news, church listings and times, schedules, and and reminders for Holy Days and other special events to meet both the spiritual and practical needs of the people. An app of this kind, especially if it contained accurate parish information and content of worth to cultural Catholics (like voter guides, for instance) would be a national first in terms of making the Church newly present.

Conclusion In illustrating these areas of opportunity we merely scratch the surface in ways to meet our strategic goals of (1) centralizing and improving the digital culture and identity of the Archdiocese (2) creating alignment between the strategies of the Archdiocese and the parishes, and (3) fostering a culture of evangelization and engagement using digital platforms.

On the digital continent there is truly another world of opportunity for presenting Jesus Christ as who He is, as both real and living. Communicating this truth digitally will require a strategist who can advise, guide, and implement appropriate platforms.

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III. IMPLEMENTATION: A DIGITAL STRATEGIST FOR A DIGITAL STRATEGY The Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s Office for Communications 15 already engages in the necessary, important work of official public engagement. In speaking of a strategy to reach the people of the digital continent, the Office for Communications represents the most natural home for a “Director for Digital Strategy” person.

This digital strategist would function as a uniquely empowered member within the Office for Communications and be tasked with advancement of new media strategy and the creation of appropriate channels, platforms, and tools to communicate the Director for Digital Strategy goodness of the faith as it’s lived in the Archdiocese.

In this way, the digital strategist would create a synergy with traditional news, media, and communications staff by working to actively inform the public’s perception of the Archdiocese, Archbishop Chaput, and the parishes.

A digital strategist would focus on proactive methods of spreading the faith through new media, creating a coherent online narrative, and serving as a sort of broker for the Archdiocese and the faithful and wider public online.

Department: Office for Communications

Role: Unify digital media channels, craft a coherent public image online, and deploy new technologies to meet the three strategic goals Plan: Develop and release public roadmap within first 90 days to guide digital strategy

While traditional communications media are reactive in nature, and largely grow Timeline: out of a broadcasting, wide-net approach, Pilot program for 18 months, digital communications are (perhaps counterwith metrics-driven triggers for intuitively) intimate, dialog-driven, and living to 24 or 36+ months personal. To succeed, this position would need to liaise freely with other departments in order to foster and enculturate a digitally literate culture both internally and publicly for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

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IV. A ROADMAP: CRAFTING A COMPREHENSIVE DIGITAL PLAN FOR THE ARCHDIOCESE This report has sought to stress the importance of a digital strategy that is both comprehensive and coherent in its execution by means of a digital strategist serving as an institutional guide for the digital continent. A single strategist, even if equipped with a worthwhile strategy, cannot succeed alone.

To achieve the new digital literacy and institutional digital culture touched upon in this report it will be critical that the vision be distilled into a public and practical roadmap. In the Archdiocese of Philadelphia this will equip all stakeholders, departments, and facets of the institutional Church with a common understanding of the strategic goals and objectives and how they can partake in this new culture.

The roadmap will be a powerful tool for coordinating and enculturating new methods of communicating.

Such a roadmap will be formulated, ideally, within 90 days of the arrival of an Archdiocese digital strategist.

Framing the tactical to-dos within the framework of our previously outlined goals and objectives will represent an actionable, public, transparent approach to digital evangelization.

This approach means the strategist will be publicly accountable in a measurable way, and that Catholics and other searching to learn about the Gospel message of the Church will know clearly what the Archdiocese of Philadelphia is doing to speak to them wherever they are on the digital continent.

The roadmap, developed through inclusion, in-depth research, and buy-in from all relevant areas within the Archdiocese, will be a powerful tool for coordinating and enculturating new methods of communicating Catholicism at low cost across a variety of high-yield media and platforms. In so doing, the Archdiocese will engage the digital space in an integrated, coherent way, communicating the story of salvation and advancing her narrative for a world where so many are searching hungrily for truth.

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CASE STUDY NYC Digital and The Roadmap for the Digital City

With the appointment in 2011 of Rachel Sterne as Chief Digital Officer, Mayor Michael Bloomberg created “NYC Digital,” a division of New York City’s Office of Media and Entertainment. 16 NYC Digital’s purpose, with Ms. Sterne as digital strategist, is to realize the city’s potential “as the world’s leading digital city” by focusing on internet access, open government, citizen engagement, and job, industry, and startup ties.

By creating and releasing 17 a “Roadmap for the Digital City,” Ms. Sterne was able to clearly align the web and digital plans of 52 city agencies across 200 social media channels reaching four million citizens with a single plan to form a vision for a more robust digital-oriented culture.

As with the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the challenge and opportunity in New York City was vast.

What Rachel Sterne did was to set expectations both internally in the city government for what a digital-first future would resemble, and publicly for what the citizens of the city could reasonably expect in terms of digital responsiveness from their city and in their neighborhoods in the coming years.

The roadmap was a powerful statement on the vision and efficacy of the city government as a major institution.

In America, such an approach — though increasingly common in the nonprofit, corporate, and government worlds — has not yet been undertaken by a diocese or Archdiocese.

As we will examine, the Archdiocese of Boston comes the closest in how they’ve worked to created a more unified approach to media and communications.

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CASE STUDY Archdiocese of Boston’s Catholic Media Secretariat

The Archdiocese of Boston is a national leader among dioceses in its approach to media. The Secretariat for Catholic Media, headed by Scot Landry, is a single administrative office within the diocese structure responsible for the planning and execution of the Boston Catholic Church’s print, television, radio, and digital media.

Created in May 2010 under Cardinal SeĂĄn O'Malley, 18 the Secretariat for Catholic Media represents a model for other major cities as a means to bring coherency and consistency, not simply in terms of brand, identity, and voice, but critically in coordinated campaigns where both traditional and emerging content platforms can sync in the spirit of evangelization.

As part of their public media approach, Cardinal O'Malley blogs regularly 19 through his office, connecting with the faithful and wider public, allowing him to cultivate a spirit of transparency and enthusiasm about the goings-on within the archdiocese and in his travel globally.

The Secretariat's approach is half diocese focused, and half parish focused.

Scot Landry embraces the catechetical nature of new media, an opportunity in contrast with the reactive nature of traditional media and public relations. This is a digital-first approach that bypasses legacy media and press filters that can distort any given narrative. By building out tools like a diocese-wide email list, the Secretariat could reach hundreds of thousands in a day, and more importantly, control its message by speaking directly to its audience.

Given that the Church will be on the cultural defensive for years to come, Boston's Catholic Media Secretariat represents a powerful vehicle for crafting and presenting coherent, ecumenical stories about the life of the faithful and leadership.

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CASE STUDY Archdiocese of St. Louis’s Mobile App Strategy

Launched in March 2011, the Archdiocese of St. Louis’s iPhone app 20 became the first major mobile application of its kind for the Catholic Church in America.

Developed through the Archdiocese’s Office for Web Development, “Catholic STL” focuses on three types of connections.

First, it presents an intuitive graphical view of the diocese for simple parish look-up. When selected, a parish will display Mass and sacrament details, location, and contact information. The app also connects users directly to diocese news, presenting a clear channel for disseminating information without the need for parish-level bulletin submissions or gatekeepers.

The “Prayers” tab, meanwhile, connects Catholics to one another by allowing them to post public prayer requests and read the requests of others seeking prayer and support.

Jeff Geerling, the app’s developer, explained 21 that he hoped it would help Catholics better “utilize the sacraments,” and, critically, that it would set a benchmark for for “getting more (Arch)diocese on board with new communications initiatives.”

So far, St. Louis stands nearly alone in mobile development.

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APPENDIX A A Digital Strategy for Catholic Dioceses 22

By Thomas A. Shakely, The Huffington Post — August 01, 2011

On Jan. 24, Michael Bloomberg hired Rachel Sterne, New York City's first Chief Digital Officer. It was an eye-catching move -- the first of its kind in the nation -- for a city government. In May Ms. Sterne, age 27, published the "Road Map for the Digital City," a plan for New York to become America's "topranked digital city," in the words of the mayor.

The plan involves public-private partnerships with city tech start-ups like Foursquare and Tumblr, increased internet access across the boroughs, a more intuitive and useful city web presence, and new uses for mobile, video, and social media. It positions New York City aggressively across the digital space, with Ms. Sterne as a sort of curator in order to be transparent, relevant, and responsive for the city's eight million citizens.

It is a position and plan equal to the challenge of integrating the two aspects of contemporary life -- our physical and digital spaces.

But for a variety of reasons, such coherent approaches to life in the digital age remain elusive, especially for major, culturally significant institutions. And among America's great institutions, the Catholic Church looms large as another arena for the reconciling of our physical and digital experiences.

The American Catholic Church represents nearly a quarter of the population; some 68 million people across 18,000 parish churches within 195 dioceses in 50 states.

Catholics under 30, who embody the future of the Church, are true digital natives. They experience life in both the physical and digital space, with real world experiences like the Mass amplified across online profiles and communities, sparking curiosity and conversation among people who expect to be able to find answers (at least, orthodox clarity of information) as simply as they search for an address or pay a bill.

The digital life, in other words, impacts lines of thinking and personal formation. This leads to an inescapable conclusion: the Catholic Church is missing a tremendous opportunity.

The dioceses, and especially the major Archdioceses in cities like Philadelphia and Los Angeles -- the organs of the Church's unique central management -- have a chance to take a cue from New York City's hiring of Ms. Sterne to recruit "Directors of Digital Strategy" of their own.

Pope Benedict XVI has made the new evangelization a cornerstone of his papacy. This is the challenge of carrying the Gospel message with a new zeal and urgency to all people, everywhere. What simpler way to begin answering this call than to make the local Church relevant in the digital space -- the lives -- of her people?

Directors of Digital Strategy could develop coherent, custom plans of action, with clear lines of responsibility, and answer directly to the bishop, serving as a digital adviser. Parish churches, too, could recruit their own digital liaisons to take charge of online media, branding, access, and communication on a local level, working in tandem with the diocese strategist.

A pilot could be launched, with digital chiefs at a few core dioceses, taking advantage of the asymmetrical, low-cost/high-yield nature of digital solutions to enrich the experience of faith life beyond the pews.

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia, in particular, represents an ideal proving ground for this concept. Charles Chaput, longtime Archbishop in Denver and author, will be taking over in Philadelphia in September. The city has been rocked in recent months by the simmering scandal of the sexual abuse crisis and its handling of accused priests, and the faithful are truly in need of leadership, not only about the state of their churches and their priests, but also on how to communicate their faith in dark times.

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Like the citizens of New York City, Catholics in Philadelphia could benefit from a leader favoring a bold posture with new media, communication, and strategy. An initiative that employed cutting-edge solutions in exploring timeless spiritual issues would energize a new generation of parishioners.

The challenge has at least two parts. First, to engage Catholics beyond the Mass across relevant platforms, communicating the eternal message of the Church. Secondly, and critically with nearperilous internal and national economies, to do so at low cost while reaching more souls across diverse physical and digital communities.

Imagine: an Archbishop whose voice was a part of your Facebook feed. Who spoke through short behind-the-scenes videos and personal updates via Twitter. Who checked-in on Foursquare. Who live streamed and archived his Masses and homilies. Who had a public email address.

Or: Churches with their own curated Facebook pages. With Foursquare pages that rewarded frequent check-ins with a one-on-one dinner with the pastor. With short Kindle/iPad histories.

What happens (or doesn't happen) in one space impacts the other.

The challenge is really one of how to tell the story of the faithful, of the church's people in places like Philadelphia, and to produce and develop new digital offerings that can give cause for affection.

This is the type of narrative transparency that builds reputational capital.

Catholics want the faith of their communities to shine, and their bishops and priests and schools to be meaningful parts of their lives and positive examples for others. The Catholic choir of community still sings. Like all choirs, it helps to have a director.

A digital strategist, and a roadmap strategy, are smart ways to seize a critical opportunity.

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APPENDIX B Social media: Friend or Foe, Google or Hornswoggle? 23

By Bishop Ron Herzog, USCCB Communication Committee — November 15, 2010 Thank you for this time today.

I often hear people, both in my work and in my circle of friends, who dismiss social media as frivolous and shallow. Who can blame them?

Twittering.

Status updates.

Blogs.

The very words used by the practitioners seem to beg for ridicule. Their light-hearted twisting of the language suggests that these are the latest fad in a culture that picks up and drops fads quicker than the time it takes me to figure out my cell phone bill.

I am here today to suggest that you should not allow yourselves to be fooled by its appearance.

Social media is proving itself to be a force with which to be reckoned. If not, the church may be facing as great a challenge as that of the Protestant Reformation.

That sounds like more hyperbole, doesn’t it? But the numbers are compelling.

There are more than 500 million active users on Facebook. If it were a nation, only India and China would have more citizens. The American Red Cross reported that it raised more than $5 million dollars, $10 at a time, through a text messaging service. One out of eight MARRIED couples in the United States say they met through social media. It took 13 years for television to reach 50 million users.

After the iPod was introduced, it took only nine months for 1 billion applications to be downloaded.

Pope Benedict XVI calls the world of social media a Digital Continent, with natives, immigrants, and even missionaries. He encourages Catholics, especially our priests, to approach this culture of 140 characters and virtual friendships as a great opportunity for evangelization. We are asked to respect the culture of these Twitterers and Facebookers, and to engage on their terms to bring Christ into their “brave new world.”

The opportunities can be incredible. As I stated previously, the participation in this new form of media is staggering. Media ecologists and other communication experts cite several reasons for the phenomenal growth: 1.

2.

3.

a low threshold of investment, both in user knowledge and finances, especially given its reach the opportunity for immediate dialogue and conversation that transcends geographical and other physical barriers and the speed in universal adaption.

Let me give you one example. The USCCB started a community on Facebook last August. There are now 25,000 ‘fans’ associated with that community. Every day, USCCB staff provides at least four items of information to those 25,000 people: the daily Scripture readings, news releases, links to information on our marriage and vocation websites, and other information. Furthermore, if those 25,000

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are like the average profile of a Facebook user, they have 130 friends, or contacts, on Facebook. With one click they can share the information they receive from USCCB. If only 10 percent of the USCCB fans share what they receive from USCCB, we are reaching 325,000 people. Multiple times a day. All it costs us is staff time.

And these are not just young people. Almost half of Americans classified as the baby boomers – born between 1947 and 1964 – have a Facebook account. Social media may have started with the younger generation, but it is now a very useful tool to reach Catholics of all ages.

Although social media has been around for less than 10 years, it doesn’t have the makings of a fad. We’re being told that it is causing as fundamental a shift in communication patterns and behavior as the printing press did 500 years ago. And I don’t think I have to remind you of what happened when the Catholic Church was slow to adapt to that new technology. By the time we decided to seriously promote that common folk should read the Bible, the Protestant Reformation was well underway.

Because it is so different from mass media and mass communication, social media is creating a new culture on this Digital Continent. Young people use it as their first point of reference. In other words, they’re not even going to their email to get information. The news, entertainment, their friends – are all coming to them through their mobile devices and through their social networks. The implications of that for a church which is struggling to get those same young people to enter our churches on Sunday are staggering. If the church is not on their mobile device, it doesn’t exist. The Church does not have to change its teachings to reach young people, but we must deliver it to them in a new way.

When the Church does attempt to evangelize the Digital Continent, it has some serious challenges to overcome. Most of us don’t understand the culture.

One of the greatest challenges of this culture to the Catholic Church is its egalitarianism. Anyone can create a blog; everyone’s opinion is valid. And if a question or contradiction is posted, the digital natives expect a response and something resembling a conversation. We can choose not to enter into that cultural mindset, but we do so at great peril to the Church’s credibility and approachability in the minds of the natives, those who are growing up in this new culture. This is a new form of pastoral ministry. It may not be the platform we were seeking, but it is an opportunity of such magnitude that we should consider carefully the consequences of disregarding it.

Secondly, the Church cannot abandon legacy communication outlets while it invests in the new media. Although the baby boomers may be going to Facebook to stay in contact with their grandchildren, they still use newspapers, radio, television and books. Those media have attributes and strengths that social media does not. Not to mention the fact that most financial donors to the Church still rely on these legacy media. So the Church needs to continue investing in those efforts, while also investing in social media.

Finally, if as bishops you acknowledge that social media is not the latest fad, but a paradigm shift, please accept the fact that your staffs – and perhaps you as well – will need training and direction.

In the past, the church would often build new parish structures, knowing that people would recognize the church architecture and start showing up. On the Digital Continent, “if you build it, they will come” does not hold true. It takes careful strategizing and planning to make social media an effective and efficient communication tool, not only for your communications department, but for all of the church’s ministries.

We digital immigrants need lessons on the digital culture, just as we expect missionaries to learn the cultures of the people they are evangelizing. We have to be enculturated. It’s more than just learning how to create a Facebook account. It’s learning how to think, live and embrace life on the Digital Continent.

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This past month the USCCB Communications Department, at the direction of the Communication Committee, conducted a survey of diocesan communication directors which focused on their use of social media and their needs.

An executive summary is available to you on the table outside, and it is posted on the passwordprotected website for the bishops. The survey showed that your staffs have a strong desire to engage new media – only two percent of the responders say that they personally avoid using social media. But it came across loud and clear that they want help in engaging. They want to be enculturated in this missionary world.

I hope you are relieved to learn that, when asked what they needed to use social media more effectively, they didn’t say more money. They are looking for staff who are trained – or can be trained – in the use of social media, however.

You may also be happy to hear that they don’t need you to learn how to use Twitter or Facebook.

They do need a vision and leadership from you. Is this something that is important to you? Is it a tool that they should be using to reach young people and others who are unchurched? Do you want them to be developing ways to integrate social media into the diocese’s communication and evangelization planning? What about fundraising? How much attention should they be giving social media and how do you want to use it?

Depending upon the skills and experience of your staff, they are also seeking support from you as they work in social media. This could be translated as any or all of the following: your affirmation of their efforts, including allowing discussion/dissension/dialogue on your diocese’s social media; financial resources for training; and the permission or direction to devote a specific number of hours of their work week to social media. That final item could mean a discussion with them about what do they not do to make room for that time in their day.

When the Communication Committee decided to ask for this time on the agenda, we made it clear to the USCCB Communications Department staff that the presentation should include not only why it was important for bishops to take social media seriously, but also what USCCB would provide to help them and their staffs. The survey provided some direction for us in that regard, but not as much as I had hoped. When asked to identify the single most important issue facing them in the area of social media, no clear answer emerged. The two most common answers were the need for more staffing and resources and the need to identify how to most effectively use social media.

When they were given a list of seven possible resources and asked to rate them as being most useful to their diocesan efforts, nearly six out of ten chose all seven resources as useful or very useful.

What we have been able to discern from these responses is that there is a realization that, even though many dioceses may be beginning to use social media, the church’s communication professionals are not devoting the time or expertise that it deserves. By committing to ongoing analysis and research, continued compilation of best practices and guidelines, and education and training opportunities, the USCCB Communications Department intends to assist their colleagues and to support your ministry as bishops on the Digital Continent. They welcome the challenge and hope that we can one day have all of you as our friends on the USCCB Facebook page.

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APPENDIX C Using the New Media for the New Evangelization

By Bishop John Wester, Chair, USCCB Communication Committee — June 2012 The past twenty years have been a dizzying series of breakthroughs and game-changing advances in communications. Our modern world is simply not the same.

Twenty years ago, there were fewer than one thousand Internet sites.

Today there are perhaps 650 million of them.

The truth of our faith has not changed. Our Tradition—capital "T"—has not changed.

But the people of our dioceses are living in a new world.

The communications future that we were promised long ago is here right now.

We've heard the statistics of how many people own smartphones and iPads and use social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. But do we realize how profoundly these new devices are changing HOW we communicate? For instance, many more people now check the news multiple times a day, instead of waiting for the evening broadcasts.

Americans are using the Internet not just for e-mail and searching for information. They use it to pay bills and make contributions, to find out what their relatives across the country and across town are doing, to make dinner reservations, to review movies and books, to buy almost anything, and to catch up with the grandchildren.

But often they can't make donations to their parishes – or to our national collections.

It's difficult to find a social network online to share their faith.

And many of the church documents, or such resource materials as the Catholic Encyclopedia, are difficult to find online.

For the USCCB's Communications Committee, we are wrestling with these questions and others: What does the New Evangelization look like in this world of communications?

How can we help build stronger relationships with our millions of parishioners?

How can we increase the effectiveness of our work in sanctifying, teaching, and governing by using the tools of 21st-century communications?

We are taking three paths to answering these critical questions.

We are identifying and sharing the overall best communications practices.

We are developing digital content that meets the needs of different audiences.

We are striving to build a culture of innovation with digital communications.

1 - Let's start with best practices We all acknowledge that communication in the digital world goes both ways. News articles or reflections or catechetical resources that are online are expected to have a place where people— potentially anyone—can offer their thoughts in a digital reply.

It's instantaneous, it's public, and it's personal.

The idea of "best practices" also includes business models. As we have learned in the past few years, the world of newspapers has been turned upside down. A business model based on print circulation and advertising revenue, which worked for decades, is now barely relevant.

So we are developing a new business model for our communications work based on current and future realities, not outdated models.

Please allow me to emphasize here that the USCCB continues to produce print products that are well received, and many of our diocesan communication efforts have the diocesan print publication as their most important means to reach the faithful.

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The challenge, as most of us know, is that it is a struggle to keep circulations high and to get print materials in the hands of Catholics who don't come to Mass every weekend.

The one-way communication model of "mass communication" or "broadcast communication" is fading away. The very notions of authority and control are slipping away in this age of transparency. It is not easy for those of us trained in old methodologies.

We used to ask ourselves, "What do we need to tell people?"

Now we also have to ask ourselves, "What do people want to hear from us?"

They no longer wait for the town crier, or the evening newscast, or the morning paper, or even the Sunday homily, to come to them.

When our parishioners need information, they seek it and find it.

When they need guidance, they look for it.

When they need community, they connect to it.

They are living in the Digital Continent, as Pope Benedict XVI calls it.

2 - So we are focusing our digital content We are doing this by identifying four content areas that answer different audience needs.

First, we are creating news and analysis through our own Catholic News Service. This includes multimedia news production from Rome and Washington, D.C. in print and video. We are creating a new editorial advisory board for Catholic News Service to help us navigate the waters of being a 21st-century news organization in the Catholic Church in the United States. This new board will help CNS in its factual reporting on the activities of the Church, the views of church leaders, and the broad issues in which we have a critical stake.

Second, we are sharpening our media relations efforts since that role as intermediary between ourselves and the major national media cannot be overstated. Since we are in a 24/7 nonstop news cycle, we cannot afford to allow critically precious hours or days to slip by without speaking out. This also requires us to increase our efforts in social media, as increasingly people no longer look to the information gatekeepers as they did in the past.

Third, we are maintaining our focus on creating pastoral leadership resources, working collaboratively with every other USCCB committee. These resources include printed materials, e-books, videos, and web pages. Pastoral leadership resources are one of our core competencies, and we are planning to make them even stronger with the addition of a closed social network for bishops, a new video partnership with Vatican television, and a new subscription service for dioceses and parishes that will include a wide range of new member benefits.

Last week each of us received an email inviting us to join a "closed social network" for bishops only, a Bishops' Network. This will allow us to share information among ourselves, one of the recommendations of the task force on communications. If you would like a tutorial or overview of the new Bishops' Network today, please visit the Lenox Room – two levels below where we are now – before 5 p.m. today, or contact Helen Osman.

Fourth, we are taking up the call of the New Evangelization with a renewed focus on resources that offer advice and encouragement for Catholics living their vocations in secular environments. This broad audience may not be well catechized, so we anticipate a strong emphasis on enculturation, including everyday language and practical applications of our teachings.

3 - Innovation with digital communications We cannot meet these challenges—and the ones around the corner—without embracing a culture of innovation and experimentation in communications. This can not be overemphasized. The new platforms of communications are continually shifting. Who knew, just two years ago, that "iPad" would become such a common household term?

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Historically, the church has patiently waited for new technologies to settle in to people's normal rhythms. We do not have that luxury today.

Our staff at the USCCB are aware of this pressing need. They have experienced some successes. Others could be called "learning opportunities," since even a failure can lead to a future success.

Consider‌ As Bishop Ricken noted yesterday, we have just launched a new browser-friendly e-publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This will be just the first resource publication of what we hope will be many available in this format, an online library of foundational titles that will be dynamic, searchable and easily accessible.

The USCCB website now has more than 2 million visitors per month, with two trillion bytes of data delivered to them. Our primary "storefront" to the world, it allows visitors to share what they find with their own social networks, get an RSS feed of the daily readings and our media releases, and it highlights the daily work of the Conference.

We have a Facebook page with almost 40,000 fans and a potential reach of hundreds of thousands. It is a platform for catechesis, building community, and encouraging Catholic identity.

We have a Twitter feed with ongoing information.

We are creating videos every day, including news from Rome, reflections on the Daily Readings, video statements on aspects of Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, and committee chairmen's greetings on the USCCB website.

We are converting dozens of major print books to e-books for distribution through Amazon and iTunes.

We are building a new video studio with capacity to receive satellite feeds from the Vatican.

Conclusion There is more to do, however. The USCCB staff, bishops and consultants to the Communications Committee and to the Task Force on Communications know that we have to increase content available to the faithful who use Spanish as their primary language. We need to learn to speak in a style that is accessible to a generation accustomed to 15 second commercials and 140 character texts, who prefer content that allows them to respond and comment.

The challenges of this moment in communications technology are a boundless opportunity for evangelization, if we are willing to speak‌ and listen.

The back-and-forth digital communication that is spreading like wildfire across our dioceses is our chance to bring the Gospel to millions of Catholics.

We have to be in the digital conversations. And we have to listen, too.

As our Holy Father said on the World Day of Communication this past January, Word and silence: learning to communicate is learning to listen and contemplate as well as speak. This is especially important for those engaged in the task of evangelization: both silence and word are essential elements, integral to the Church's work of communication for the sake of a renewed proclamation of Christ in today's world.

We are in a paradigm shift, as profound as when the printing press made literacy a necessity or when television made the planet feel smaller. Paradigm shifts, like all major changes, are unsettling and uncomfortable.

But, just as the Church learned how to use the book and film to proclaim the Good News to the ends of the earth, so today we must teach ourselves to learn these new tools to help people find the faith in their ordinary days and in their times of need.

Thank you for listening today, and for your willingness to be missionaries on the Digital Continent.

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NOTES & FURTHER READING Cover Image: Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, Copyright © 2008, Used with Permission Header: Archdiocese of Philadelphia Official Seal, Wikipedia, Creative Commons Fair Use

• Digital Strategies for Powerful Corporate Communications by Paul Argenti and Courtney Barnes • The Church and New Media by Brandon Vogt • Post-Artifact Books and Publishing by Craig Mod

1

http://www.tuck.dartmouth.edu/digital/research/case-studies/dell

2

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3

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