If Catholic Bishops can learn to use social media, why not lawyers?

“…If a bishop is trying to engage in evangelization without a sophisticated social media outreach, you have a promising future in ministry to the Amish.”

This from Terry Mattingly (@tweetmattingly), before the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Mattingly is a religion columnist for the Scripps-Howard news service and co-founder of GetReligion.org, which analyzes religion coverage in secular media.

Ann Rodgers (@pgfaith) of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported yesterday on the 25 Catholic bishops getting crash course in social media in advance of the full conference. With the majority of Catholics using social media, the Bishops were looking to social media as a means of reaching Catholics who are disconnected from the church.

Parish bulletins have been the most widely used Catholic media, per Mark Gray, director of Catholic polls at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. No longer.

Panelist Mary DeTurris Poust (@MaryDTP), who has spent a 30-year career in Catholic media, cited the use of some New York dioceses used Facebook and Twitter to direct people to sources of shelter, food and water.

That was in true gospel fashion. In previous generations, that is a conversation that would have happened in the back of a church after a novena. … Today, Facebook is in many ways the new parish hall.

As with lawyers, bishops express fear and hope about possible engagement through social media. From Archbishop Roger Schwietz of Anchorage, Alaska:

I’m afraid of making a fool of myself. This is personality driven. What I’m used to is to focus on the message and stay out of the way.

But from Bishop John Gaydos of Jefferson City, Mo., who compared the digital age to the era that saw the birth of Christianity:

It spread like wildfire. You had the system of Roman roads … and the spiritual hunger of people who would go after any new mysticism.

I grew up a strong Catholic, attending Catholic grade school, high school, and even college (Notre Dame). Like many Catholics, I have drifted away, perhaps not from my beliefs, but at least from the Catholic Church. I probably only attend mass 4 or 5 times a year and am apt to go to our Episcopal Church after befriending the Vicar there.

For me, the Catholic Church’s use of social media could engage me. I could see my local church and its parishioners building a real community across various social media platforms. I could see St. James Cathedral in downtown Seattle connecting with us to help serve people in the inner city.

I already follow blogs, Twitter users. and Facebook from Notre Dame and Gonzaga, from where 2 daughters graduated and our twin sons are currently enrolled. I feel connected to the schools and the people I am engaging. I just wish the schools leaders themselves would engage us via social media, as opposed to email newsletters and updates.

The Catholic Church has a big problem connecting with ‘Catholics.’ The church has a trust as well as a relevance problem. Though lawyers and law firms may not have run into the legal and social problems the Church has, we lawyers definitely have a trust and relevance problem vis a vie the general public.

Social media may be the tool to cross the divide. From Brandon Vogt, a Catholic blogger, writer, and speaker:

There has never been a tool, in my belief, that has been more effective at reaching non-Catholics than we have now. Fulton Sheen would give his right arm for what we have today. The question you should be asking is … how do you reach those who would never knock on the door of a rectory?

I didn’t see myself writing here about the Catholic Church and social media. But there’s a lot lawyers and the Catholic Church have in common when it comes to benefiting from engagement with their audience through social media.