Parish & School Planning and Support Services

Internet Resources

Software to filter out objectionable Internet material

Catholic or family rated FREE Web site space

Catholic Families http://www.catholicfamilies.net/ Free web space and email

RC NET http://www.rc.net/ RC.Net is one of the most successful services offering free web sites to Catholic organizations. Since 1995, this Michigan-based service has been creating and hosting web sites for Catholic schools, parishes, and other organizations. Their service is quick and reliable. RC.Net has a solid reputation for providing free web sites and maintenance with no strings attached. The number of parishes creating sites on their server is growing by leaps and bounds. The site maintains a directory of all diocesan web sites in the United States, and a quick perusal of the directory will demonstrate that the RC.Net parish sites are found in almost all 50 states. Contact: webmaster@rc.net

ECCLESIA WEB SERVICE: http://www.catholic-church.org/   A parish youth minister from St. Luke's parish in Strousberg, PA, Scott Fabian organized Ecclesia Web Service in early 1995 as a free resource and conferencing area for other parish youth ministers in the United States and beyond. The network quickly grew to include diocesan and parish pages, Catholic information files and large directories serving Catholics in ministry throughout the world. The Ecclesia Online Service now owns it's own "server" (a computer with a direct connection to the Internet), and continues to offer free web sites to many non-profit Catholic institutions. EWS now offers a free Holy Card Creator, which allows visitors to instantly generate and send a holy card to someone else online. EWS is in the process of creating an Internet live-streaming video broadcast of the Mass from the St. Luke's Parish site at http://www.catholic-churhc.org/stluke. Finally, the online version of this directory has been hosted by Ecclesia Web Service since April 1995 at http://www.catholic-church.org/cid

Assistance with creation / hosting of Web Site

Office of Communications/Webmaster for www.rcab.org The Archdiocese does not offer any hosting or web site design services. The Archdiocesan web site (www.rcab.org) belongs to the Office of Communication and is hosted and maintained by Deacon Charlie Cornell (webmaster@rcab.org) as part of his diaconal ministry. He highly recommends that you identify someone in your parish or organization who has some web site experience to create and manage your web site. There are a number of ISPs that offer free web site hosting for religious organizations (see above).

Once your web site is up, please use the parish directory entry change form to add the address. Go to the Parish section of www.rcab.org, select your parish and display the parish details. Click on the little pen icon to the right of the parish name and add the web site address to the form.

CHRIST IN THE DESERT MONASTERY: http://www.christdesert.org/ Christ in the Desert Monastery has been providing quality web site design to Catholic organizations since early 1995. Situated high in the mountainous wilderness of New Mexico, the monastery does not even have direct phone service, and must communicate with the outside world by cellular phone. Yet this monastery has become a focal point for Catholic web design all over the world. In a throwback to the days of illuminated manuscripts and the monastery copyroom, several of the brothers at Christ in the Desert Monastery have been able to prepare and detail a whole new generation of manuscripts for public consumption on the World Wide Web. The monastery has also served as a designer and consultant in the creation of the Vatican Web Site. The Christ in the Desert web design team is lead by Br. Aquinas, who has recently gone to Rome to create a design house where web designers, seeking to serve the church, may live and work. In a move announced in the summer of 1997, Christ in the Desert has teamed up with a company to form a web design group at http://www.nextscribe.org/ . Brother Aquinas of Christ in the Desert Monastery may be contacted at aquinas@christdesert.org

COMPUTER MINISTRY FOUNDATION: http://www.rcan.org/ A non-profit organization founded by Christine Magi, Webmaster for the Archdiocese of Newark 1995 Papal Visit Web Site. The Computer Ministry Foundation serves as a networking point for Catholics seeking to use computers to aid their parishes, dioceses, and other ministries. A recent project in the Newark Archdiocese involved the hookup of computer terminals to a local retirement home for sisters. These sisters are now reaching out through cyberspace, giving Catholics the benefit of their training and years of experience in the field of education. Christine Maggio of the Computer Ministry Foundation may be contacted at: chris.mac@applelink.apple.com

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