Today is the official launch of Aleteia.org (beta), a new concept in collecting all the good Catholic media in one place and to be interactive with the people of the church. Aleteia is partnered with the blessings of the Vatican, and is hoping to be a very popular website for the New Evangelization for the Year of Faith and beyond. Aleteia has been under development for the past year and its launch was announced at the Catholic New Media Conference last month. Aleteia is not officially part of the Vatican, and is run in cooperation with a company called OPUSFidelis headquartered in Reston, Virginia.
This is an ambitious effort to collaborate many types of media and people from many languages on one website. Aleteia will offers news, videos, social media, and areas for education about the Catholic Faith. I hope it is successful and it offers promise to help unite the many peoples and cultures of the Catholic Faith, and to help with evangelization. I recommend that you share this link with your parishioners and encourage them to become part of the greater Catholic community on the internet.
Following is the promotional video for Aleteia:
Following is the press release today from Aleteia:
2 billion people are connected by the Internet today: every month, 55 million Google searches focus on God, 25 million on Jesus, 37 million on the Church and 17 million on the word “love.”
Aleteia exists in order to provide in depth answers to people exploring these topics. The network seeks to promote a global conversation on faith, life, and society for all “truth seekers.”
The Aleteia network provides Internet users the best print and multi-media content from Catholic institutions around the world. More than 1,000 partners have already joined the network and many more are in the process of joining. [Catholic Web Services has joined the network as a partner and you are welcome to check out the Aleteia Partnership website for details.]
Aleteia is a project of the Foundation for Evangelization through the Media (FEM), which was created to further all the media projects launched by Catholic institutions, congregations, and ecclesiastical movements in response to Benedict XVI’s appeal for the new evangelization of the digital world.
The Aleteia network is launching in 6 languages: English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic.
It currently employs 45 people around the world (writers, translators, social media managers, digital experts, etc.), with three main offices: one in Rome, one in Washington, D.C. and one in Paris.
Aleteia benefits from an editorial board composed of globally-recognized experts.
Andrea Salvati, for the last 6 years part of the leadership team at Google Italy, has recently joined Aleteia as CEO.
From October 7-22 is the Synod of Bishops for the New Evangelization in Rome. Pope Benedict is calling for a renewal of the New Evangelization from Vatican II and Aleteia and using the internet and social media are part of the plan being recommended to to clergy and lay people. Good article below from National Catholic Register about the upcoming Synod. Check out the website and you are welcome to leave comments.
LINKS
The Synod and the New Evangelization (National Catholic Register)
Aleteia (Seasons of Grace Blog – Patheos)
