A GROUP OF U.S. BISHOPS SEMINAR WITH BLOGGERS ABOUT NEED TO EVANGELIZE ON THE BLOGSPHERE............

As the U.S. Bishops gather in Baltimore, Maryland; for their Fall General Assembly this week, two dozen of them held a meeting with a larger group of bloggers on Sunday in a seminar discussion on the more effective use of the blogsphere by bishops and pastors.  The meeting focused on how more Bishops can blog, and use Facebook and Twitter. to communicate with Catholics, particularly youth online in articulating their Faith and Evangelizing them.  Many of the bloggers repeatedly urged the Bishops to use the social media as an outreach resource at their disposal as an effective means of communicating and evangelizing.  26 year old blogger and book author Brandon Vogt, told the two dozen bishops in attendance, "Fulton Sheen would give his right arm to have the tools we have today".  The late Archbishop Sheen was a renowned communicator and effective, Emmy Award winning television and radio Evangelist in the 1950's and 1960's.  "Whispers In The Loggia" blogger Rocco Palmo, cited the current example of Marquette, Michigan Bishop Alexander K. Sample, as one who is making effective use of blogging, by recently marking the start of the Year Of Faith, by tweeting as he made a 1,000 mile journey along the Upper Michigan Pennisula.  Telling the Bishops people can relate and feel close to them when they share their experiences - he said to them, "Your job as guarantors of the Faith, is to make sure the message has integrity and resonates with People".  From a study commissioned by the U.S. Bishops Communications Department, Mark Gray, of CARA, the Center for the Applied Research of the Apostolate, told the gathering that a survey of 1,047 Catholics taken between September 10 - 18, finds that 36.2 million American Catholics, 62% of the adult Catholics in the U.S. , have Facebook profiles; and 58% of American Catholics age 30 and under, share information and material on social media on a weekly basis; and one third of Catholics would like to have their own bishops and pastors, blog.  I am glad to learn of this seminar and only wish more of the Bishops had chosen to participate.  From my own three and a half years of blogging, I can attest to what the bloggers present shared with the 24 Bishops who were present for the seminar.  The response my blogging has received to date, indicates parishioners and other people of Faith, and those interested in Catholic-Christianity, Religion, Spirituality, and World Affairs, read, follow, and respond to my blog columns indicating the positive contribution it makes to their understanding, as I title it of, "Insights Into Life And Faith"............Fr.  Troy