Nun networks online to promote vocations

Sister Rosemary Ann Cuneo, CR, has been poked, tickled and downloaded in her job as Parish Liaison/Discernment for Religious Life Director for the Albany diocesan Vocation Office.

Sister Rosemary is becoming fluent in such methods to communicate with the YouTube generation and answer the questions they have about religious vocations. Using social networking sites such as Facebook, making vocation videos available on YouTube, and doing regular webcasts are tools that vocation ministers are finding helpful in their ministry.

“We’re trying to get the message out and it seems to be working,” Sister Rosemary said.

It made sense to Sister Rosemary to try using technology to communicate with young adults. While at a workshop for vocation ministers, one of the leaders told participants that if they were trying to communicate with young people they shouldn’t concentrate on email but should begin looking at social networking sites, Sister Rosemary said. 

Facebook rising

“I’ve been on Facebook for two or three months now,” she said. “We’re trying to get to a younger audience. A lot of them are searching on the web for information.”
According to the National Religious Vocation Conference religious communities are seeing a benefit in using technology for outreach.

The VocationMatch.com Second Annual Survey on Trends in Catholic Religious Vocations reported a 62 percent jump in inquiries into Catholic religious life. Over 70 percent of discerners responding to the survey, which is sponsored by the NRVC, said a community’s web presence was important to them. 

“In what will surely be a growing trend in our YouTube culture several discerners even remarked on the helpfulness of videos on vocation websites,” said Patrice Touhy of VocationMatch.Com.

The NRVC is offering workshops and trainings on using websites, e-newsletters, social networks, and videos to conference membership.

Uploading podcasts 

For the past year, Sister Rosemary has been doing biweekly webcasts to reach potential discerners. A webcast is similar to a radio show but it is broadcast over the internet. It is also taped so that people who miss the live version of the show can listen to it again. 

Listeners can also download the show to listen to over and over.

Like a radio host, Sister Rosemary often has guests on the show.  She did a show where seminarian Dan Quinn shared his experience with discerning his vocation. She reports that this webcast in particular has been downloaded frequently. “I plan to have the other seminarians on as well,” she said.

Sister Rosemary said she likes her webcast to be relevant to current events. “I like to keep up on what’s current and apply it to vocations,” she said.

Her webcast has featured discussion on spirituality books, St. Ignatius of Loyola’s discernment principles, and prayer.

Knowing youths

While a lot of preparation goes into a webcast, Sister Rosemary feels prepared. “I have an advantage in that I was a teacher at the high school and college level,” she said. “The preparation is similar.”

During the live webcast, listeners can call in or email her with questions. “We’ve had some really good conversations,” she said.

In addition to the conversations, Sister Rosemary has found that listeners are downloading the webcasts to listen again at their own pace. “What I’m finding is that we have a couple hundred people downloading,” she said. “And we do have a live audience.”

Sister Rosemary also participates in an online vocations discussion group. “We had thousands of young people participating in discussions when the Pope came,” she said.
During this time she started her own online vocation chat group. “In one day we had 60 people involved in discussion,” she said.

One of the benefits of using technology is that young people who might be at the beginning stage of exploring a vocation may be intimidated by going to a vocation meeting or event. 

Hi-tech intimacy

Listening to a webcast or participating in an online chat can help ease some of the fear they have about this. “It’s private, supportive, and there are no strings attached,” she said.

Technology won’t take the place of face-to-face conversations about vocations, she said. The diocesan vocations team has regular informal discussion groups at local coffee shops, with plans for one at the Muddy Cup, an Albany spot popular with college students and other hipsters. 

(To learn more about Sister Rosemary’s webcasts visit www.rcda.org/vocations. Her Facebook page is www.facebook.com/people/Sister_Rosemary_Ann_Cuneo/1175377964)

(9/11/08)