Launch of Armagh Diocesan Website
25 June 2001
Issued by the Catholic Communications Office on behalf of the Archdiocese of Armagh
The Archdiocese of Armagh has launched its website which contains a 360 degree virtual tour of the splendid St Patrick’s Cathedral. It is believed to be one of the first Cathedral virtual tours of its kind on these islands.
Launching the site in Armagh Archbishop Seán Brady said: “It is fitting that the Archdiocese of Armagh should have a presence on the worldwide web. I am very happy that we are employing the very latest and most sophisticated technology in bringing the Faith to the world in this way. In the past we talked about bringing God to the streets and to the marketplace. Bringing God to the internet is an important part of the mission of the Church today and offers great challenges of which we must not be afraid.”
The site has 450 pages of information on the life of the Archdiocese including:
- Archbishop Brady – biography, homilies and addresses
- Auxiliary Bishop Gerard Clifford – biography, homilies and addresses
- Parish information and images of almost every parish church
- A section on the history of the Archdiocese
- The life of St Patrick and the other patron saints of the
- Archdiocese
- Histories of former Primates
- Information on shrines and places of pilgrimage in the
- Archdiocese
- Vocations section (under construction)
The most innovative feature is the use of ipix dynamic imaging software which enables the viewer to move all around and right through the Cathedral, seeing its architectural treasures from close up and far away, at the click of a computer mouse.
The website project was produced under the guidance of the Archbishop’s office. It was designed and implemented by the web development team at Quantum Advertising Group International, Dublin, who specialise in church communication.
Pope John Paul II has spoken many times on the use of the internet, encouraging local Churches throughout the world to avail of the web as a tool of evangelisation. In his message last month for World Communications Day the Pope said:
The media “offers unique opportunities for proclaiming the saving truth of Christ to the whole human family. Consider… the positive capacities of the Internet to carry religious information and teaching beyond all barriers and frontiers. Such a wide audience would have been beyond the wildest imaginings of those who preached the Gospel before us. What is therefore needed in our time is an active and imaginative engagement of the media by the Church. Catholics should not be afraid to throw open the doors of social communications to Christ, so that his Good News may be heard from the housetops of the world!”
The website of the Archdiocese of Armagh may be accessed at www.armagharchdiocese.org
ENDS
Photographs of the launch can be sent by e-mail on request.
Further details:
Diocesan Office, Armagh, 048 375 22045
