At a time when full power television stations in the United States were originally targeted to switch to 100% digital broadcasting on February 17 (Congress asked for a June 12, 2009 extension, because low-income households, minorities, seniors or disabled are still unprepared), The Compass, the Diocese of Green Bay’s catalyst of communication, is exploring the new digital arena, the so-called cyberspace, by launching a redesigned, interactive website.
The new design includes a graphic indicating The Compass’s mission to point out “a correct course” in line with church teaching – as the founding publisher, the late Bishop Aloysius Wycislo, said in his first bishop’s column, “True North,” in The Compass in 1978. (The Compass, January 30, 2009)
Celebrating this new direction during ‘Catholic Press Month’, Bishop David Ricken presided at a Eucharistic liturgy at St. Joseph Chapel, Green Bay, WI, on February 5, 2009. Food followed. Members of the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity, Catholic women religious whose Motherhouse is within the diocese, supported this new endeavor that marks a fundamental shift in evangelization for all ages. See the homepage banner ad link.
Some Catholic communication trivia:
- Pope Pius XI constituted the Catholic Press Month in 1931. He exhorted the Faithful to celebrate this event knowing the importance and power the printed word has on peoples’ minds.
- Pope John XXIII once told a group of Catholic journalists in the Vatican: “The Catholic Press is the mouthpiece of the Church; the loud speaker of the Church. To be a Catholic journalist is not only a profession but also a mission.”
- St. Francis de Sales is the patron saint of writers, editors and journalists. He was Bishop of Geneva, Switzerland, 1602-1622. He was noted for the energy and zeal displayed in his missionary work in the province Chablais, a stronghold of Calvinism. His practical advice to defenders of the Faith was given to the world in 1608, when he published his Introduction to the Devout Life.
- Pope Paul VI in the document Inter Mirifica recognized the importance of media, and that the “press, movies, radio, television and the like, can, of their very nature, reach and influence, not only individuals, but the very masses and the whole of human society, and thus can rightly be called the media of social communication.”
- Pope Benedict XVI in a May message entitled New Technologies, New Relationships, Promoting a Culture of Respect, Dialogue and Friendship “appeals to friendship as a motive to ensure that the new digital world is truly accessible to all. It finds friendship a shared reference point with all of humanity that grounds the appeal of the message to promote a culture where there is respect for all and where all are invited to search for truth in dialogue.”
How is friendship a shared reference point in your life? What do you think of The Compass’s new look?
