Traditional Vocations Blog

Our associated blog promoting vocations to traditional religious congregations has recently hit another milestone, having more than 100,000 hits in slightly more than a year. The blog was established as part of the efforts of St. Conleth's Catholic Heritage Association's efforts to mark the Year of Vocations declared by the Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland.

As of this morning, the blog had received 113,251 hits from 56,626 unique visitors. 12.9% of visitors return more than 5 times. Of the recent visitors, 36.9% are from the United States, 8.7% are from France, 8.3% are from Ireland, 7.4% are from Britain, as well as substantial number from Poland, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, and The Philippines.

The Pontifical Commission for Social Communications issued this message for World Communications Day. "The priest and pastoral ministry in a digital world: new media at the service of the word - The essential task of the priest is to announce the Word of God made flesh; made man in human history. The efficacy of this ministry requires that the priest himself should have a profound relationship with Christ, rooted in a deep love and knowledge of Sacred Scripture, the written witness to the divine Word. The Message for the 44th World Communications Day invites priests, during this Year of the Priest and following on the deliberations of the 12th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, to see the new media as a great resource for their ministry as servants of the Word and encourages them to confront the challenges posed by the new digital culture. The new media, if adequately understood and appreciated, can open up to priests and pastoral ministers a wealth of scholarly and devotional materials that were previously difficult to access and they can facilitate forms of collaboration that were in the past unimaginable. With the support of the new media, those who preach and make known the Word can aspire to reach with their words and images - with a new language specific to these means - individuals and communities across continents and time-zones and to create new communities of learning and dialogue. Used wisely, with the assistance of those who are experts in the technologies and the culture of communications, the new media can become for priests instruments of profound evangelization and communion. They will be a new form of evangelization by means of which Christ can continue to walk the streets of our cities and stand at the threshold of our homes: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me." (Rev. 3,20)"