Bishops, Bloggers To Dialogue In ‘Encounter With Social Media’

WASHINGTON—U.S. bishops willaddress the changing world of social media and its implications for the Churchin a discussion with bloggers and other social media users in Baltimore,November 11. "An Encounter With Social Media: Bishops and Bloggers Dialogue"will precede the annual Fall General Assembly of the U.S. Conference ofCatholic Bishops (USCCB).

"We hope this event yields fruitful discussionand a deeper understanding of how social media and the Church can enrich oneanother," said Bishop John Wester of Salt Lake City, chairman of the USCCBCommittee on Communications and moderator of the event.

The encounter will feature a newstudy by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), "CatholicNew Media Use in the United States, 2012," and responses to the study by apanel. Panelists include Bishop Christopher Coyne, auxiliary bishop andapostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis; Rocco Palmo, authorof the blog Whispers in the Loggia;Mary DeTurris Poust, a Catholic journalist, author and blogger; and TerryMattingly, author of the syndicated column OnReligion and the blog Get Religion.

"Bishops and Bloggers" continues thediscussion begun at the Vatican's April 2011 conference for bloggers, sponsoredby the Pontifical Council for Social Communications and the Pontifical Councilfor Culture. The USCCB Department of Communications and the Catholic CommunicationCampaign are sponsors of the November 11 event.

The public sessions of the bishops'Fall General Assembly, November 12-13, will be live streamed at www.usccb.org/about/leadership/usccb-general-assembly/.Speeches and other documentation will also be available. Live updates of themeeting will appear on Facebook (www.facebook.com/USCCB)and Twitter (https://twitter.com/USCCBLive).

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Keywords: bishops, bloggers, dialogue, "An Encounter withSocial Media," social media, blogs, new media, CARA, Center for AppliedResearch in the Apostolate, Bishop John Wester, Bishop Christopher Coyne, RoccoPalmo, Mary DeTurris Poust, Terry Mattingly, Whispers in the Loggia, GetReligion, USCCB, November meeting, Catholic Communication Campaign

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