Faith-based Web site available to diocese

By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
September 11, 2003

A new way for the people of the Diocese of Sioux City to access faith-based information is now available thanks to the World Wide Web.

The Diocese of Sioux City's Web site gives people access to information allowing them to expand their knowledge of the church and enrich their faith. The Web site offers many different things for people of all ages and interests.

"The fully developed faith formation site will be for everyone," said Dr. Stephan Davis director of youth and intergenerational ministry for the diocese. "Catechists who want to learn more theology, DREs and youth ministers who want to share ideas, Catholic youth who desire to grow in their faith and interact with other youth, parents who want information for their children or teens, and any person seeking knowledge or the forms for diocesan faith formation events."

The faith formation Web site is three pages with additional program links for three specific audiences.

"The home page is mainly for adults who want to do word or phrase searches in the Bible or the Catechism of the Catholic Church," said Davis. "It also links people to the daily Lectionary readings, a nice set of daily reflections on Scripture, the Liturgy of the Hours, the diocesan media center, and our faith formation programs."

Another page is designed for people who work with adolescent faith formation called the "YM Think Tank." This page provides youth ministers and DREs with articles and resources that they can utilize in their work.

"I also envision this page to be a trading post for youth ministry, where people will submit their questions or ideas for the good of everyone," said Davis. "For example, a new youth minister wants to know how to plan a service trip. She would send her question to me, and I would post it to the 'YM Think Tank' to be responded to by more experienced youth ministers."

The third page is a youth page where teens can access information on diocesan retreats and other programs. There is also a Bible search engine for the teens to look for passages relating to their lives.

"The youth page offers a few select links, which I have investigated, to other pages of benefit in the challenging area of teen Catholic faith, for example, on teen prayer," said Davis. "My vision is to have different youth from the diocese post their own prayers and faith reflections to the page. This will entice other diocesan youth to the site."

One goal of the Web site was to make the various brochures, forms and applications that different offices mail out available online.

"I use the Web a great deal in my teaching to post information and resources for my students," added Davis who is one of the instructors for the Church Ministries Program. "The Web seemed to be a great way to present quality Catholic material quickly and inexpensively to parishioners and catechists. The VIRTUS program confirms the value of web-based learning.

"I believe we will potentially save the diocese a great deal of money in people hours and mailing costs once people get in the habit of checking our Web site for what they need."

The Web address for the faith formation home page is: http://www.scdiocese.org/faithform/home.htm. The address for the DREs and youth ministers page is: http://www.scdiocese.org/faithform/ym.htm. The address for the youth page is: http://www.scdiocese.org/faithform/youth.htm.

Davis plans to keep expanding the Web. Most of the youth ministry programs have been put online but not the baptismal preparation or marriage related programs, he commented.

The next project for Davis is to write online learning modules on assorted topics given to him by Bishop Daniel N. DiNardo.

"Ultimately, I hope that the faith formation Web site will be developed and widely known so that people who seek information about retreats and other programs will know where to go," said Davis. "Those who want to learn about their faith, while they sit at home will have our faith formation Web site."