Whenever I hear people talk about how the Catholic Church is old-fashioned or out of touch or not moving with the times, I always sigh a little. For you see, while some people like to cling to old, inaccurate stories about guys like Galileo, or refer somewhat foolishly to the average age of the clergy, I tend to focus more on the facts.

Take for example the recent article in the Telegraph newspaper in the U.K. referring to a meeting in November at the Vatican. You might note that that is not anything special by itself; there are hundreds of meetings in the Vatican every year. So what does this have to do with technology and the Church? Well, the meeting was not between heads of state and the clergy, but rather with heads of the internet and some bishops. Specifically, representatives from Facebook, Google, YouTube and Wikipedia were at a four-day conference organised by the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.

The Vatican, it seems, has fully realised the importance of these new technologies in reaching out to people of all ages and creeds across the world. And, as such, they have invested the time and money in this meeting of the minds in order to better understand how to spread the Good News of Christ in a modern world.

Quite frankly, this is another example of the wider Church being at the forefront of modern technology. Be it papyrus and the written word, or the Gutenberg press, or radio, or TV, or now the Internet – the Catholic Church has always tried to explore new technologies and techniques of reaching people wherever they may be. I applaud this new research by the Vatican, and I hope they continue to explore technology – not afraid, but eager to preach and teach online!

In the past we’ve talked about how technology is changing the way entertainment is delivered to your door. However, some recent innovations available to us in New Zealand justify revisiting this topic, to look at the new ways you can keep up with your weekly entertainment fix.

To begin, both the major broadcast networks in New Zealand are providing a large amount of TV shows online from their websites. If you missed last nights Fair Go because you were at a PTA meeting – you don’t need to worry. Just head to TVNZ.co.nz and stream the episode straight to your computer. Similarly TV3 offer a number of their shows online too at tv3.co.nz and c4tv.co.nz.

Secondly, the movie store is becoming redundant thanks to services like the iTunes Movie store. Rather then having to go out to buy or rent your movies, a large range of films are available through iTunes – both as rentals and to purchase. Once you’ve got them, these can be watched on your computer, iPod, or Apple TV device.

Finally, coming in November to New Zealand is the Zune Marketplace – Microsoft’s answer to the iTunes store. This offers the added benefit of not only having movies but also a range of TV shows available for download. You can download these both to your PC and also to your Xbox 360 – making it easy to watch in the comfort of your lounge and extending the usefulness of your games console. Unfortunately the Zune MP3 player isn’t officially available in New Zealand, meaning you won’t be able to take your videos on the run with you.

Cooking… it can become a chore and probably you don’t think it has a lot to do with your faith. Well there is a Catholic Cooking website and show (available online) that shows this need not be the case. Yes, a Catholic Cooking show!

Fr Leo is currently based at Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary in Maryland where he directs the Pastoral Field Education Programs for future priests. His love of food and cooking led to the creation of a Catholic Cooking show – Grace Before Meals (www.gracebeforemeals.com). The website reveals his motto ‘Stronger family. Better food’. His idea is that the ‘simple act of creating and sharing a meal can strength all kinds of relationship’. He has webisodes for download both from the website, and also syndicated at www.sqpn.com, where you can watch him cook a range of dishes.

Series One is particularly appropriate for the Catholic Geek team – liturgically themed pasta sauces, Italian food being a cG favourite. He starts with a green sauce, based on pesto, green being the colour used by the church during ordinary time. The second is a red, tomato sauce, with the red representing the Holy Spirit and the blood of martyrs. The white sauce starts with sautéing aromatic onion and garlic. White is the colour used for Christmas day, holidays and saint days. The fourth colour sauce is purple – used during the season of Lent and advent – we will leave you to find out what that one is for yourself! These four fantastic meals are a great starter for lively dinner table discussion.

If this has you hungry for more, SQPN has a whole section devoted to Food and Leisure which has a range of other programmes which may interest you. Check it out, and don’t forget to say your Grace before Meals!