Catholic Roundup

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Today, Father Roderick and the SQPN network closed their annual fund raising drive with a 12 hour podcast marathon. I thought I would surprise Father Roderick with something special. The Catholic New Media Celebration will be held this year in San Antonio, Texas on June 27. I’m still unable to go but it will be an amazing event. To help promote the CNMC, I wrote and recorded a parody called, ‘People are going to San Antone’ with the help of Adam Hendey on flute (recorded by his mother Lisa Hendey the Catholic Mom), and Dan Harms of Popple on Lead Guitar.

Enjoy.

And if you can make it to the Catholic New Media Celebration, head on over to celebration.sqpn.com for more information.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (2.2MB)

I won’t be able to go the the Catholic New Media Celebration in Atlanta on June 22, 2008, but that doesn’t mean I can’t help promote it. Here is a video and downloadable mp3 of the CNMC Blues.

Enjoy
Sean aka ductapeguy

I have featured alot of SQPN podcasts during this 40 days project, but that is because I have sort of ‘grown up’ with the SQPN community. Two of the first podcasts I listened to regularly were the Rosary Army and the Catholic Insider . As the apostolates of Rosary Army and SQPN have grown, so has the community around them. My wife and I credit Catholic blogs and podcasts for helping us re-invigorate our faith and for helping us find Christian community both on the Internet and within our parish. A good example of the power of this community is that on Saturday, Father Bill Kessler was later than usual in starting his Technopriest podcast live on Ustream. There were about 5 people in the chat room waiting for him but we were quite happy chatting amongst ourselves, even if for some reason Father Bill was unable to arrive. He showed up about 20 minutes later with the Ustream party well underway in his absence.

Anyway, this weekend the SQPN website got major overhaul. I think the layout of the new site is very intuitive with content arranged logically into channels for easy browsing. There is a frequently updated rotating banner at the top which highlights recent episodes of SQPN shows and news. The tabbed bar at the right hand side makes it very easy to switch between views of recent shows, categories on the page, or recent comments to help you participate in the conversation. I’m not sure I like the idea of using visual elements and logos that resemble popular consumer brands for individual shows and entries but I love the overall visual effect.

The overall look and feel presents SQPN as very much a ‘Network’ of Catholic media with a little bit of something for everyone. Congratulations to Father Roderick and all the volunteers behind the scenes who made this happen.

Now say that title five times quickly.

Continuing on my theme of the spiritual importance of place and sacred spaces, today I’m going to highlight just a few podcasts where priests are sharing their pilgrimages through their podcasts.

First up is Father Bill Kessler, who hosts the Technopriest and Technochurch podcasts. In November, Father Bill went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with members of his parish and his family. He shared his experiences in a short series of video podcasts from the Holy Land.

TechnoChurch#33: Technopriest in Israel Day 1
TechnoChurch#38: Technopriest in Israel Day 2
TechnoChurch#41: Technopriest in Israel, Day 3
TechnoChurch#43: Technopriest in Israel, Day 4

Father Bill Holzinger of the
St. Anthony’s Podcast and Fr. Geek’s Video Podcast has been submitting regular audio and blog reports of his parish pilgrimage to the Holy land as well. In one of Father Bill Holzinger’s podcasts from Jerusalem, one of his parishoners remarked how she was overawed to stand in the same place where Mary was visited by the angel in the annunciation. That is truly a place of great spiritual significance.

PilgrimCast #1

PilgrimCast #2

Father Jay Finelli, the Ipadre, has produced both audio and video podcasts of his travels to Medugorje and Assisi.

Finally there’s Father Roderick, who pioneered the idea of a soundseeing tour in a podcast in The Catholic Insider. He now also produces a videocast of his travels called Godspeed.  For over 3 years Father Roderick has shared a Catholic perspective on the places he has travelled including, Rome, Ireland, Georgia, Lourdes, and even my own country of Canada.

There are many other people producing sightseeing and soundseeing tours of their travels throughout the world. I think this speaks to the need for people to make pilgrimages, and of the great spiritual importance we put on places.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (2.7MB)

Here is a brief interview I did with Father Roderick when he came to Toronto last month.

In August of 2005 I got my first mp3 player and started scouring the Internet for mp3s to put on it. I discovered the early This week in Tech programs, and found 2 neat Catholic podcasts, The Catholic Insider, and The Rosary Army Podcast. It was an AHA moment for me. Up until then I was largely unaware of the nascent Catholic culture and community on the internet. I quickly became a regular listener of Father Roderick, and I can remember I was walking to work through a park when I heard Father Roderick announce that he was going to do his first Daily Breakfast Podcast. Two and a half years later, Father Roderick and Greg and Jennifer Willits head the Star Quest Production Network, SQPN.com which currently hosts over 30 Catholic podcasts and is the epicenter for a blossoming Catholic community on the internet.

My family was delighted when we heard that Father Roderick was coming to Canada on a whirlwind tour in late January. After school on January 26, we piled into the van and drove 2+ hours to Toronto to meet up with Father Roderick and about 20 other SQPN listeners.