Our Sunday Mass from St Columba Cathedral

"Social Media has become the new front door of the Church"

In his first Pastoral Letter, Testify to the Light, Bishop David Bonnar identified communication as a key priority for the Diocese of Youngstown. He exhorted the faithful, "It is important that we meet the people where they are. I am asking all of our parishes to devote greater resources to social media."

The new Communications Department of the diocese exists to do just that: to create content to meet people where they are, and also to support our offices, parishes and schools to use social media to evangelize. With your support, we can continue inviting those along the digital highways and hedgerows of our six counties in Northeast Ohio, just as Jesus taught in parable:

"Then the master of the house... commanded his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in here the poor and the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ The servant reported, ‘Sir, your orders have been carried out and still there is room.’ The master then ordered the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedgerows and make people come in that my home may be filled.'" -Luke 14:21-23

The Department of Communications is posting on social media, partnering with CatholicTV, and providing content to parishes and schools in order to not only maintain contact with lifelong parishioners, but also reach new audiences. Some of the ministries we provide regularly:

• Feature stories and photo coverage of Catholic life in the Diocese of Youngstown
• Our Sunday Mass filmed at St. Columba Cathedral (previously called Mass for Shut-ins)
• Two weekly podcasts: the new Catholic Echo podcast and the award-winning radio show Wineskins
• Create and share daily content promoting the ministries of Catholic Charities and diocesan offices via all social media channels
• Partner with the channel CatholicTV to provide programming in all six counties, and distribute stories about local Catholic life to a national audience
• NEW Catholic Social Media platform that will allow more parishes to create a social media presence or post more regularly

We continue to steadily grow in followers and viewership on all of our social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and our websites DOY.org and CatholicEcho.org. With your support, the diocese can increase our ability to provide social media software and training for our Catholic parishes and schools to continue growing in this important aspect of communication & evangelization. The donation levels provided are just examples of what your donation might be used for: all donations of any amount will support the efforts of the diocesan Department of Communications to provide evangelism training and social media content for Catholic ministries throughout our diocese.