Parishes tune in to technology with podcasts, cable shows

Published: 2007-05-09

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (CNS) -- Members of St. Mary Parish in Canandaigua now have a new way of reflecting on the weekly Scripture readings, thanks to seminarian Brian Carpenter and youth minister Dawn Burdick. Instead of flipping through the pages of a Bible, parishioners now can turn on their computers or iPods, download the most recent installment of the podcast of "Your Sunday Reader," then sit back and listen as Carpenter and Burdick read and discuss the week's Scripture selections. Many Catholics would like to spend more time reflecting on the Scriptures but may not have time to sit down with the Bible, said Carpenter, who has completed two years at Mundelein Seminary in Illinois and was serving his pastoral year at St. Mary. "We thought it would be a good way to reach some people, especially the younger people who tend not to come to a lot of events," he added. A podcast is an audio file -- called an MP3 file -- that is distributed to subscribers via the Internet, Carpenter said. Each week a new podcast is automatically sent to the computer of anyone who subscribes to the free service through the iTunes Web site, www.apple.com/itunes. The podcasts also may be downloaded from the parish's Web site, www.stmarycanandaigua.org.

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