The Internet is creating a revolution in communication. News, ideas, information and commerce are all moving directly into peoples' homes and workplaces almost instantaneously. Just as St. Paul and others with him made use of the Roman roads to spread the gospel quickly across an empire, so too the church in Ireland today should take full advantage of this new medium to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to people of our day. But with the swirl of information, e-commerce and ideas already flowing across the Internet, how can the Church compete? How can the Gospel be presented in a way that will reach people in their homes and workplaces?

The "Web Portal" is a strategy being used by many organisations. A web portal gives people a mix of personalised information, news and services that they want and need alongside the message the sponsoring organisation wishes to convey. In our case, the Gospel. This is the strategy of all web portals,

And a particular service that everyone needs and that the Church is in the best position to provide is good local community information. How do I find out when that removal or funeral is occurring? When is that meeting for the parents of first communicants? What times are the services for this holy day? And beyond the religious realm? Who do I contact if I need a solicitor? A plumber? When is the school play?

We propose to give every parish a web page of it's own. If a computer literate volunteer can be identified in each parish who is willing to give a few minutes to an hour per week to keep the site updated with announcements and parish and other local news, people will come back over and over to the site.

Added to that will be other features that would be of regional, national and general interest. There would be news headlines tailored for Catholics, and press releases from the diocese and other agencies. Alongside these would be features of a spiritual nature, a "Daily Prayer Companion" and a section on "Preparing for Sunday." Evangelistic Bible studies, on-line education, and FAQ features and forums on "what the Church really teaches" would round out the "proclamation" portions of the site.

And how to pay for this development? Through a combination of corporate sponsorship and sale of advertising space. Local sponsors such as funeral homes, wedding caterers, florists, and other local businesses and services, as well as large corporate sponsors who would wish to reach out to Catholics in Ireland would become sponsors for what could become the biggest online community in the country.

Features of a Catholic Portal Site:

• Local Parish Information
  • Mass Times
  • Contact Information
  • Local Community Services guide
  • Parish Newsletter on-line
  • Parish Notices, including births, weddings and deaths
  • Local school information o Local business directory
  • Forums and discussions - linking people, building community
• Diocesan Information
  • Prominent link to Diocesan Web site
  • Web feed of diocesan announcements and press releases
  • Catholic News Headlines
  • "Web Feed" to news sources, local, national and international
  • Press releases from diocese, Episcopal Conference, etc.
• Spirituality, prayer and scripture features
  • Morning and evening prayer
  • Quick click for daily meditation
  • Read the bible
  • Daily Mass Readings
• On-line Evangelisation and education
  • Find more about the Catholic faith
  • What does the church really teach?
  • Forums
• Charity and Volunteer Community Organisations
  • Information and links to charities and community organisations
  • On-Line donations
  • On-line recruitment of volunteers
• International
  • Links to Vatican
  • International news feeds
  • Missions awareness
• Safe Search facility - Find what you are looking for on the web without fear of pornography or objectionable material
• Directory of Catholic Web sites
  • Search engine for parishes
  • Listings of all Catholic organisations, orders, etc. An on-line Catholic Directory of Ireland, with links to email and websites.
• Forums, chat and email services