Great Article On Louisiana Blogging and Podcasting Louisiana Catholic Priest

I was looking at the new edition of the Catholic Paper for the Diocese of Alexandria Louisiana (which is always good and available here for download in PDF form) Go here for back issues. I noticed that there is a very nice article on Father Humphries and his blogging and podcasting. Please note that are the download there is also a very interesting article
Evangelization in 21st Century:-Arkansas Bishop uses Facebook to bring Gospel to youth

I note with some humor that of course Father Decker from Baton Rouge or the Lay Theologian from the Diocese of Lafayette is not mentioned as to Catholic Underground in the article. IT IS ALL HIM. Well us North Louisiana Catholics have to shine sometimes :) On a other note if you go to the link above there are pictures of Father. He is much thinner than I imagined. Funny the mental images you get of people.

Anyway Father blogs here at Thoughts & Ruminations from Fr. Ryan and the great podcast he mentions us located here at Catholic Underground ( I actually have Catholic Underground in the Lafayette Louisiana Catholic Links since I could not decide where to put it).

On a side note Father is Pastor of one of more Historic Churches and Catholic areas in the United States. That is Church of the Immaculate Conception located in Natchitoches, Louisiana. This town is the oldest settlement in the Louisiana purchase. If you have seen the movie Steel Magnolias you have seen parts of the town. It should also be noted that Father does the (The Extraordinary Form (Traditional Latin Mass) is celebrated Tuesdays at 8am and Sundays at 4pm.) .

The pictures of his Church and its very interesting history are located here. It is pretty cool that Father, a pretty young Priest, is not only the pastor of souls that have a direct connection to the early spreading of the Faith on North America but that he is suing the latest technology to that today.

If you don't want to download here here it is.

From the Pulpit to Cyberspace
Fr. Ryan Humphries utilizes Facebook, blogging, podcasting to spread the Gospel


He’s written the perfect Gospel message on Lent, penance, and forgiveness and delivers it for
his homily to the 25-30 people attending the 6:30 a.m. weekdayMass. By mid-morning he adjusts the words a bit to fit into the senior religion class he teaches at the local Catholic high school and delivers it again at the noon Serra Club meeting.

At the end of the day he files it away, -- a little disappointed that after three presentations, less than 150 people heard his Gospel message.

Unless, of course, that priest is Fr. Ryan Humphries, associate pastor of Immaculate Conception
Church and self-proclaimed computer technology geek.

Fr. Ryan takes advantage of the enormous evangelization capabilities of the Internet to spread the Gospel . . . and it’s catching on.

Podcasting.
Fr Ryan produces a (somewhat) weekly podcast through his own website,Catholicunderground.com. By using the program GarageBand onthe Mac, Fr. Ryan can record, produce, and convert it to the necessary file format to be uploaded on the Internet.

People who visit his site can download his message at anytime to their computer, MP3 player, or
iPod and listen to it at their convenience. He presently has an average of 2,500 downloads per
podcast and around 150 who listen to it live.

“Podcasting is simple to produce and simple to distribute, yet has enormous possibilities of
reaching thousands of people,” said Fr. Ryan. “It is an excellent evangelization tool.”
Catholicunderground.com contains not only his podcasts and archives of his podcasts, but also a
link to his Facebook page.

Facebook. Fr. Ryan joins the increasing large group of Catholic church leaders who have a
presence on Facebook, a socialnetworking website and the 5th most popular site on the Internet.

To view his page on Facebook, you have to be a Facebook user and accepted by him as a “friend.” Fr. Ryan currently has more than 500 “friends” here in the U.S. and in, coutries all over the world that he can keep in touch with daily upload photos, and share links and
videos.

This is where he also occasionally posts his homilies. “Facebook is a good way to keep in touch with the youth because it is a tool that they use daily,” said Fr. Ryan. “On Facebook, the kids can “talk” to me or ask questions without feeling intimidated about talking to a priest face-to-face.”

Even Bishop Anthony B. Taylor of Little Rock, Ark., is on Facebook and uses it as part of his
youth ministry.

Blogging. A blog (a contraction of the term "Web log") is a Web site, usually maintained
by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other
material such as graphics or video.

The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. “Because of its interactive nature, I use blogging as a way to promote dialogue about all types of topics and issues,” he said.

“When I post a homily or an essay on a topic, readers can read it and then share their thoughts or ideas.

It is very enlightening to blog.” Of course, all of this blogging, and Facebooking, and podcasting
does take up time, but it’s time that Fr. Ryan thinks is well spent. “I do it because I enjoy it and
it’s like a hobby for me,” he said.

“But I also realize, and I am already witnessing, the potential for widespread evangelization and
for building community. We’ve got this great new media tool; we just learn to use it effectively.”