These sites provide a functional and accessible interface for members of the Catholic community and broader public. Feedback is welcomed.

"These refreshed portals are fantastic resources which form part of our mission to reach new audiences better and stay connected with our current users," said Bishop Patrick Dunn, president of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops' Conference.

"They will continue to grow in use with valuable social media links, regularly updated liturgy and news articles, and links to key Catholic agencies and partners."

It is anticipated the revised sites will make it easier for users to navigate and search for specific topics about the Catholic Church - such as the latest bishops' statements, announcements, liturgy-related items, up-to-date liturgical calendars, the New Zealand Aotearoa Ordo and other publications.

• Click here to view New Zealand Bishop's Conference website.
• Click here to view National Liturgy website.

Source

Supplied New Zealand Catholic Bishops' Conference

The platform, called AdEthic, was presented on Thursday in Rome as part of a Church project to engage in social media.

The platform wants to tap into the vast Catholic online market that has so far been unable or unwilling to use advertisements, said Andrea Salvati, a manager at Google Italy who will take the role of CEO at AdEthic in October.

Rev. Paolo Padrini, who launched the iBreviary prayer app for iPhone last year, observed that many Catholic webmasters are "scared" that inappropriate advertisements will be displayed on their pages.

"We want to offer highly selected, high-quality, controlled advertisement to the Catholic online world," he said.

Salvati said AdEthic will offer Catholic websites the chance to "monetize" their traffic while supporting charity.

Padrini said part of AdEthic revenues will be used to fund charitable projects.

While there are no firm data on traffic to Catholic websites, Salvati estimates that around one-third of Italy's 28 million Internet users visit one of them at least once a month.

AdEthic aims to group them together in order to make them a desirable target for advertisers.

AdEthic will start operating in Italy, but aims to eventually expand to other countries.

The advertisement platform is part of Aleteia, a Catholic social network that was launched on Thursday. Both Aleteia and AdEthics are promoted by the Foundation for Evangelization through the Media, a Rome-based Catholic lay organization that aims to promote faith through social media.

Source

• Religion News Service/The Washington Post
• Image: UCA News