A Word From Fr. Robinson Ortiz

Communications at St. Joseph Catholic Church: Part 1

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

A very important component of our parish mission is the need to communicate with all of you in many different ways. Perhaps you are reading this letter on The Carpenter or on the website. These are only two ways in which we communicate at St. Joe’s.

Besides the bulletin and the website, we also communicate through the marquis on Milwaukee Ave, announcements at the end of Mass, the phone in the parish office, social media, the newsletter sent through email, and of course, through personal communication.

In the past years, St. Joe’s has been improving its communication platforms. Social media has been important to convey messages through images and videos. St. Joe’s has accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. The username for all those platforms is SJLibertyville. On YouTube you can watch parish videos on Christmas, Lent, Communities for the Kingdom, Religious Education, and Social Justice. On our social media accounts, you can learn about upcoming events and see pictures from different parish events.

In August 2018, the parish reactivated the service of homilies in audio through our podcast. You can listen to the homilies that priests and deacons preach at St. Joe’s on Sundays and holidays. This service is available on our website and several apps that most likely you already have on your mobile devices: Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, Podbean, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, and TuneIn. Just search ‘St. Joseph Libertyville’ and you will be able to hear our latest homilies. This is a service that can help you reflect further on the Sunday liturgy as you drive or do your daily activities during the week.

In December 2018, our live streaming service began. The Masses on Saturday at 5 PM and Sunday at 9 AM can be watched through our website or social media. This service offers those who are homebound, traveling or have moved, the opportunity to connect with the liturgy at St. Joe’s and to pray with their community of faith. Wonderful comments have been received on the joy that people feel regarding joining us in prayer from home, especially when unable to get to church because of an illness.

In September 2019, our website received a makeover to simplify the navigation and find the information you need. The design of the homepage was updated with background pictures from our church and grounds. New sections were added to the homepage to help you find relevant information such as Mass times, The Carpenter, homilies, sacraments, presider schedule, live-streaming, upcoming events, social media accounts, commissions, ministries, staff directory, Mass readings, saint of the day, and parish calendar.

On our website, the St. Joe’s staff is working hard to keep you informed of what is happening. The recently launched Parish News section is constantly updated with short articles and pictures of the events that happen in our parish. The rationale behind this section is that we not only want to invite you to participate in events, but we also want to tell you what happened at those events. In addition, we are posting more pictures taken at different events on our social media accounts.

In October 2019, we created a new section in The Carpenter called “A Word From.” Every week, a member of the staff or the clergy writes a reflection, an event that is happening in our parish or the universal Church. We want to keep a personal communication with you and keep you informed regarding our many ministries and activities in our vibrant community. The weekly letter can also be found on our website.

High quality videos continue to be created for special occasions, such as Christmas, Lent, Easter, mothers’ day and fathers’ day. In addition, some videos support the religious education program, the altar servers training, and the many ministries at St. Joe’s. Just this weekend we are releasing our Christmas video. I hope you will watch it on our website and social media, then share it with your friends and acquaintances.

Over this past year, we have improved our communications in a huge way, but we can still do more. We will be working on a communication strategy and full coordination with all ministries in the parish and the school. For that reason, the PPC has approved a communication proposal to create three new ministries in the parish that will be under the Accountability Commission.

First, the Communications Advisory Committee will be formed by parishioners who have worked in the communication or marketing areas. They will be responsible to formulate a communication strategy and evaluation of our communication platforms. Second, the Communications Ministry will be formed by the leaders of each the commissions and staff members who work in the area of communication. Third, the Media Ministry will be formed by volunteers who want to help us through pictures, flyer designs, Mass broadcasting, live streaming, etc.

In my letter on January 5, I will expand on the mission of this new communications structure in the parish and how you can participate. We will continue to work together as we help people come to Christ and bring Christ to all those who are unable to come for any reason. Stay tuned!