We’ve all been there —we need to find a Mass when we’re on vacation to a neighbor island, or we can’t remember reconciliation times for our own church. The newly designed diocesan website has information you need quickly, like Mass times, and much more.
Organized and clean, with bright, bold headings, the website has valuable information, like Bishop Larry Silva’s weekly homily as well as sections on getting married in the diocese, timely news and events, and connections with important resources.
“This website project can touch everyone,” said Diane Lamosao, diocesan manager of financial and systems analysis. “My hope is that everyone will use it, though we are just getting started.”
The website has already been several years in the making, with a diocesan board team working in partnership with Anthology, a local communications company with more than 25 years of experience.
The board includes Father Gary Secor, vicar general and the board chairman; Father Manny Hewe, vicar for clergy; Blessed Sacrament Father Bob Stark, community organizer for the Office of Social Ministry; Jayne Mondoy, director of the Office of Religious Education; Patrick Downes, editor of the Hawaii Catholic Herald; Lisa Gomes, director of the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry; Elina Simon, executive assistant to the vicar general; Eva Andrade, communications director for the Hawaii Catholic Conference, and Lamosao.
The website supports the Diocese of Honolulu’s strategic plan, “Witness to Jesus: Diocesan Road Map for Pastoral, Program, and Facility Needs” in a variety of areas. Not only does it help with faith formation, it can help with youth and young adults, leadership, and almost every one of the six diocesan Road Map categories. According to Lamosao, the project owes its success to With Grateful Hearts.
“Without With Grateful Hearts support, we wouldn’t have been able to fund this project,” Lamosao said. “We are so thankful that people are contributing to With Grateful Hearts. We are happy for the Hawaii Catholic community that’s allowing us to create something so that the parishes can have a website solution to go to.”
“Though phase one of the website project is now complete,” Lamosao said there are still two more phases before the project moves into the maintenance stage. The second stage will help build a website template that parishes and schools can use to create their own, unique websites.
“Some parishes have great websites,” Lamosao said. “Some would benefit from a model. Though they will be using a template, they still will be able to keep their unique parish and school look.”
The second phase will also include an intranet, where parishes and schools can connect among themselves and with the diocese. The third phase will be to create a site that can work on mobile devices.
Lamosao said that as the phases are completed, she hopes the website will become a place where people from all islands can “gather” to create a community of peers. She said the diocese also hopes the website will attract youth and young adults, as well as those who are curious about the Catholic faith, or have left the faith and are thinking of returning.
“As we look to the future, we know we need a multi-faceted approach to evangelize,” Lamosao said. “We have to go where people are, and they are in the cyber world. To reach them, we need the tools to be missionaries on the digital continent.”
She said the website is also a great place where people can draw closer to the bishop and learn from his weekly teachings.
“This can happen, not only from his homilies, but from his pastoral letters, such as his Pastoral Letter to Surfers (from Jan. 14.) They shared it and emailed it,” Lamosao said. “For a lot of young people they were very excited to see something like that.”
To view the diocesan website, visit www.catholichawaii.org. To view the bishop’s Pastoral Letter to Surfers, visit www.catholichawaii.org/news-events/news-articles/2013/january/pastoral-letter-to-surfers.aspx.
