My family and I have been deeply nourished and have grown together a much deeper faith in our Lord Jesus Christ through our participation in the online Catholic Community.  It has always been our goal to help promote and celebrate online Catholic Community.  Over the past several months it has grown clear to me that we needed to clearly define our focus.  After all, Jeff Young is The Catholic Foodie, Paul Camarata of the Saintcast is the Saint guy, Jeff Miller is the Curt Jester, and Father Jay is the iPadre, bringing us ‘All things Catholic and then some’.  I strive to be “That Catholic New Media Guy”, but so is everybody else in the new media space.  What is it exactly what differentiates our growing online ministry from other people answering the call to spread the Good News using the Internet modern multimedia tools?

Last week I was surprised by Susan Bailey’s announcement that after 10 years she had handed over the reins of Grapevine online to the capable hands of Jim O’Meira and Rob Ayoub, from The Catholic Music Express Podcast.  On her podcast she she felt that it was an important part of her music ministry to “Support and Encourage other Catholic Musicians”.  On the Grapevine Website there is a lovely mission statement that describes that their purpose is.

When I heard Susan’s words and read the Grapevine mission statement,  I cried, “Eureka!  That is exactly what we are trying to do!”, in my head.  Building upon their inspiration, here is a mission statement for the Catholic Roundup.

1. To support and encourage Catholics who are endeavoring to use new media tools to spread the Good News.
2. To always work for the Glory of our Lord Jesus Christ through the intercession of His Blessed Mother.

We endeavour to carry out this role by:

• participating the online Catholic Community, educating others, and offering to act as facilitators in the online Catholic Community.
• helping other with their online endeavors by promoting their projects, by participating in their communities and playing in their sandboxes.  It is our firm belief that everyone benefits when we support each other.  A rising tide floats all ships.
• help others achieve excellence in using new media tools.
• helping to unite and cross-pollinate the various disciplines within the online Catholic community, ie bloggers, podcasters, musicians, social media junkies and web developers.

Now that I’ve finally figured out how to explain what it is that we do here at the Catholic Roundup, now it’s your turn.  Whether you are a blogger, podcaster, site developer, musician or just a participant in the online Catholic community, What is your ‘mission statement’?