TIPS FOR SAFER WEB SURFING Make your passwords strong – Your first line of defence online begins with your password. To ensure you create strong passwords, Use a mix of numbers, letters - both capital and small, and symbols. Make sure the password is at least eight characters and that it is easy for you to remember, but difficult for others to guess. Change your passwords often! Beware of using public or shared computers. Make sure you log off of any site that requires a login and password. Often web browsers can keep you logged in even after you close the broswer. You should also clear the browser’s history after you are finished. Be wary of clicking on links in emails or instant messages from people you don’t know, or opening email attachments from just anyone. Simply click on links can embed software on your compuer that can steal your passwords. Attachments can, and often do, contain viruses – virus-check every attachment before opening it. Keep your personal information personal. If you are on a site that requests personal/financial information, ensure it is legitimate and secure by looking for ‘https’ in the address bar and a padlock icon. Keep your kids safe from inappropriate material online. These days having a computer at home is very common. Purchase internet protection software, like Bsecure, to help protect your kids.
MISSION MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
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Set Sail on the Digital Sea Dear Relevant Radio Family, As you know, with all the new technology out there, we live in a very modern and instant world. New media – Facebook, Twitter, Smart Phones, iPads, Droids – has now become main stream. That’s where the people are, so that’s where Relevant Radio needs to be. Regarding the use of new media, Pope Benedict said, “Without fear we must set sail on the digital sea launching into the deep with the same passion that has governed the ship of the Church for two thousand years” (Vatican Radio, April 24, 2010). Relevant Radio has a great opportunity to do just that and use this new media to help “give a soul to the Internet’s incessant flow of communication” (Pope Benedict XVI) and reach even more souls in the New Evangelization. With the launch of our new website, we will be providing more options to proclaim the Truth in addition to our radio ministry, from online articles by well-known Catholic authors to audio CDs and podcasts from prominent Catholic speakers to improved live streaming for mobile devices. And who knows what the future will bring? We have “set sail on the digital sea” and hope to catch as many souls as we can! Enjoy our new website, and be sure to check back often for continual updates! With prayers and best wishes,
Rev. Francis J. Hoffman, JCD father@relevantradio.com
Relevant Radio, PO Box 10707, Green Bay, WI 54307-0707 Listener/Donor Line: 1-877-291-0123 Prayer Line: 1-888-577-5443 Branding & Business Building with Relevant Radio: 1.800-342-0306 EXT 7315 For more information about our daily shows or to find your local station, check us out at www.relevantradio.com © 2011 Starboard Media Foundation, Inc.
Click here for a YOUTUBE video tour of the new site! Several months ago work began on upgrading the overall look and functionality of the Relevant Radio website. We listened to our listeners who wanted improved live streaming with greater accesibilty for Macs and mobile devices, streamlined navigation, and easy access to resources on the Catholic faith. We’re pleased to present you with the new RelevantRadio.com! The new site features a rich, “Marian blue” textured palette intended to recall the Virgin Mary. The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, our Patroness, is prominent on every page. The site navigation is intuitive and highlights the main motivations of the site visitor: to make a prayer request, to listen online, and to make donations. The homepage visually showcases Relevant Radio events, partners and programming and uses motion and varied interfaces to create an interactive user experience. The Memorare Meter is an innovative way to encourage listeners to pray together and interact with the site. Social media access is prominently integrated on all pages including Facebook content embedded right on the Program pages. You don’t even need a Facebook account to see their postings! The site features embedded live streaming for all computer platforms and offers a streamlined approach to the audio archives. We hope that you and the many listeners of Relevant Radio find that visiting the site is an enjoyable, interactive and informative experience.
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NEW LOOK! NEW FEATURES!
Here’s a quick look at some of the new features you’ll find on the new RelevantRadio.com website. Let us know what you think by clicking here.
1. THE MEMORARE METER How man Memorares will it take to end abortion in America? 50 million? 50 billion? We’ll keep track of our prayers so we can come together and encourage each other to pray more! 2. HOMEPAGE CAROUSEL
Get the latest scoop on events, pilgrimages, programming alerts and much more with the homepage carousel.
3. PARTNERS The site features four partners of Relevant Radio who through agreements have likewise offered to put our content and links on their sites. 4. PROGRAM NAVIGATOR
With the Program Navigator, you can easily see which program is currently on-air and have easy access to each show’s program page and guest information.
The Church, the Digital Revolution, and You
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by Sean Herriott
continue to change profoundly. No one platform is necessarily here for good--just look at the fall of My Space, from THE social network to essentially being sold for scrap to an investment group. Facebook or Twitter might fall to make way for the Next Big Thing, but social media--and a never-ending stream of information and communication--are here to stay.
Sean Herriott has been host and Managing Editor of Morning Air® on Relevant Radio® since 2004. He started the Meet Joe Convert blog in 2002, as a journal of his experiences coming to Catholicism after 30 years of life as an Evangelical Protestant. Just Plain Catholic is a blog about his continuing journey in the Church. Sean also explores technology, gadgets, social media, and new media, and their impact on our lives in his Tech Hamster blog. With all that blogging, he barely has time to tweet.
They call it the “Digital Revolution,” among other things; everywhere you turn, our society is being transformed by the proliferation of social media. With a roster of about 750 million users, almost one in 10 Americans is using Facebook (not to mention people all over the world who are there as well). Twitter’s audience is smaller--just shy of 150 million--but it still equals about one-third of the entire population of the U.S. As we’ve seen with some unfortunate episodes involving politicians and celebrities, it doesn’t take long for an ill-advised Tweet to make its way to the other
two-thirds of the country, thanks to a press eager for novelty and scandal in the age of a 24-hour news cycle. Like any revolution, there’s a point where a winner is declared, and the revolution moves on to its next stage; that could be anything from a free and fair society to a ruthless dictatorship. How you see this next phase of our digital lives probably depends on how well your relationships with tech and social media have gone. Like it or not, though, we need to acknowledge that our world has changed--and will
Between Facebook and Twitter alone, nearly a billion people are represented, and they are far from the only players on the field. Twitter has passed 50 million Tweets per day; 48 hours’ worth of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute. Technorati indexed 112.8 million blogs before it basically gave up earlier this year; blogs come and go--and the ranks of bloggers swell so quickly--that it’s impossible to keep track. 294 billion emails are sent all over the world-every day. The sheer volume of information available to us, and coming at us--from trivialities to matters of life and death--is staggering. The Church is calling on Catholics to leverage “the means of social communication”--which takes in everything from radio to Twitter--to make an impact in the community. Given the sheer volume of information (and we haven’t even factored in traditional media--hundreds of television channels, dozens of radio stations, billboards, newspapers) and a myriad of other messages so persistent that they’ve become background chatter to most of us, how can we cut through it to find an audience--and how can we say anything meaningful to anybody? This is the part of the Digital Revolution which is--well, revolutionaryand which we often overlook; these
We hear a phrase like “The New Evangelization” and our eyes start to glaze over; many of us don’t have a handle on the old evangelization, much less a new one. The Latin root for evangelization is the same as for the Latin word “evangelium,” which you’ll find used in many papal documents. “Evangelium” is Latin for “gospel”--a word which simply means “good news.” Evangelization is simply sharing the good news--and on an individual level, it’s a matter of telling your story. Do you love the Mass? Tell somebody. Do you have a special devotion to Mary under a particular title, or to a particular saint? Tell somebody. Does your faith ground you, or keep you centered during the bad times, or inspire you to express your faith in a creative way? Tell somebody. You can share your good news--however it expresses itself in your life--with all sorts of people who are desperate for hope and meaning in their lives. You don’t have to have a theology degree or a media empire; you’ve got a mouth, and a pen, and (since you’re reading this) a computer. That’s all you need. Here’s the thing about the billions of
bits of information making its way to hundreds of millions of people; none of it gets to everybody, but most of it gets to somebody. If you’re interested in sharing your story online in some way, you don’t have to try to develop an audience of millions, or thousands, or even hundreds. Just tell your story, sing your song, post your prayer, and share what you’re passionate about. People will find it. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a hundred people or a million people; you’re going to touch somebody with what you’re doing. By the way, the “good news” isn’t a matter of sharing everything about one part of our lives and nothing about the rest. We make connections to one another through our common experiences and interests, and you have your own unique perspective to share. You can find groups or start blogs dedicated to almost anything; it’s fun and gratifying to share your thoughts with people who actually want to hear them, but it’s also a point of contact with other human beings. The Internet’s dark side consists in the degree to which it isolates someone from the rest of humanity, or drags him further into himself (through something as serious as illegal pornography, or something as trivial as Angry Birds). Its virtue is as a means of creating and deepening the connections people can make with one another. Your story--whatever it is--is a genuine point of connection to someone else. The New Evangelization is nothing more than telling your story, and listening to someone else’s. The
explosion of instantaneous communication gives us the ability to share that story with someone in London or Zimbabwe as easily as we could share it with our next-door neighbor. It allows us to find other people who have something in common with us--anything from a hobby to a shared struggle to faith itself--and make a real connection with them. It doesn’t mean posting the Hail Mary to your Facebook page (although it could), or sharing your deepest fears and failures with the world (although some people do). It simply means being who you are-who God made you to be--and seeing others for who they are. There’s a world full of people who are precious, beloved children of God, and have absolutely no idea. Evangelization is introducing people to the God who has always known them, even if they don’t know Him (or re-introducing them if they did have faith, or should have and somehow missed the train). The New Evangelization is communicating the Good News in a way that meets people where they live and connects with them on a personal level. Social media is an opportunity for you to do that from the comfort of your home, using the most powerful tools of communication ever devised by mankind, and for free. So, what are you going to do?
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means of communication are bursting at the seams because almost anyone can use them. Anybody with a computer and an internet connection can start a blog, or set up a Facebook page, or stream their music and video to the rest of the connected world. They can do it now--this minute--and do it for free.
Pray the Memorare with us to end abortion in the United States - Click here.
Your Gift Means the World to Us! “It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.” - Mother Teresa Your gift to Relevant Radio® substantially changes lives! It transforms hearts and minds! It brings the kingdom of God to a hurting world. Your gift saves lives by giving voice to our bishops and prolife apostolates as they defend the dignity of God’s greatest gift, Life. Listen to a “Miracle Moment” in which a young woman decides not to abort her baby because of what she heard on Relevant Radio! Click here to listen.
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Talk Radio for Catholic Life
We need your prayerful support, that Relevant Radio may be faithful to God’s will; and we need your financial support, that we may continue to have the means to spread His message over this powerful medium of radio. There is a wise saying: “You can’t serve God and Money,
Relevant Radio is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Contributions are tax deductible as allowed by law. EIN/tax ID number: 39-2003067 © 2011 Starboard Media Foundation, Inc.
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>> POPE BENEBICT XVI TWEETS The holiest tweet to ever be sent out into the cyberspace: Pope Benedict XVI sent his first 140-character message publicizing the launch of the Vatican’s new website on June 29, 2011. >> NEWS.VA The Vatican’s news portal, further demonstrates the Holy Father’s reaching out to “the digital continent.” >> YOUTUBE CHANNEL This channel offers news coverage of the main activities of the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI and of relevant Vatican events.
WATCH THE HOLY FATHER’S INTRODUCTION TO THE IPAD AND IS FIRST TWEET ON YOUTUBE >>
>>>>> www.rev-know-it-all.com >> REVEREND KNOW-IT-ALL Since September 2006, Fr. Simon has written a weekly article under the pen name “Rev. Know-It-All” in which he answers questions from readers about God, religion and the Roman Catholic Church. >> RELEVANT TOPICS “A collection of the Best of Fr. Simon on Relevant Radio. >> SUNDAY HOMILIES ONLINE Since December 2007, most of Fr. Simon’s homilies from Sunday Mass are available now online as “The Stairway To Heaven” series of sermons in video format as well as full transcripts in text format. Rev. Richard Simon’s alter-ego >>
Fr. Richard Simon a.k.a. “The Rev. Know-It-All” broadcasts Go Ask Your FatherTM from his Office at St. Lambert’s rectory in Skokie, IL.
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