Fr. Anthony Man-Son-Hing, pastor of the Church of Christ the King in Sudbury, Ont., has begun podcasting his homilies and posting them to the parish web site.

A podcast is a recorded media file that can be accessed through a personal computer and portable devices such as iPods.

Each Sunday, Man-Son-Hing records his homilies and posts them to his parish home page, www.christtheking.diocesessm.o-rg. His podcast, called “This foreign land,” has already attracted more than 400 subscribers, with five new people signing up every day.

“Young people and younger adults are not in our churches, and by putting our presence on the web, we can reach them where they are at,” said Man-Son-Hing, who is one of the first Catholic priests in Canada to podcast his Sunday homilies.

This is one of the many unique ways that Man-Son-Hing uses the Internet as a faith formation tool.

This past fall, he placed online his Confirmation program, which included catechesis sessions, forum discussions, Scripture passages and a question board encouraging young people to engage in dialogue.

Podcasting and online sacramental preparations are part of DeoWeb, an Internet site —www.diocesessm.org — that the diocese of Sault Ste. Marie launched almost two years ago, allowing each parish to have its own web site.

“We had a desire to attract more young people — not to mention the number of professional and retired individuals that are gaining Internet competency,” said Laurie Gagnon, the Internet communications co-ordinator for the diocese.

“The geography of our diocese is large and we have now shrunk that distance through Internet communication,” said Gagnon.

Visitors to DeoWeb can find diocesan news and online discussions, as well as a diocesan newspaper and web sites for every parish within the diocese.

“We wanted this to be a resourceful tool for our people,” said Bishop Jean-Louis Plouffe of the Sault Ste. Marie diocese. “We wanted to initiate a more personal dialogue with our people on faith — it’s a wonderful tool to be used.”

Deoweb is the brainchild of Gerry Kirk, general manager of Faith Online in Sault Ste. Marie. He said that it’s part business and part ministry.

“The Internet has evolved and there are new ways to communicate that the church hasn’t picked up on,” said Kirk. “We are building relationships between people and parishes.”

Faith Online is looking to expand its potential by building online communities for other dioceses. While the web sites are designed to fit the pace and need of each diocese, the diocese must make a commitment to its own success.

Costs of the project are not cheap and there must be an administrative staff to keep up the services. But the outcome may be worth the investment.

“This has the potential to bring God’s people together in ways that we haven’t discovered yet,” said Man-Son-Hing, who explained that people from as far away as England and the Bahamas are tuning into his podcasts.

Man-Son-Hing said the next step is to bring people into church from behind their computer desk. “That’s the next phase — I’m still trying to hook them, to spark their interest in our faith.”

DeoWeb, news and information, podcasts and other multimedia tools are just the beginning for the diocese of Sault Ste. Marie as it plans to explore other opportunities to bring people into dialogue.

“We are open to all kinds of options — whatever is necessary to continue to spread the word of God,” said Man-Son-Hing.

(Muscolino is a member of The Register’s Youth Speak News team.)