In the latest Our Sunday Visitor newsweekly, you’ll find profiles of nine outstanding Catholics who embodied leadership, service, and witness in the past year. They include people like Helen Alvaré, the prophetic advocate of authentic womanhood; Archbishop William Lori, the bishops’ religious liberty pointman; Cardinal Luis Tagle, the YouTubing Filipino who may one day be Pope; and my friend Leah Libresco, the super-smart atheist who blogged her way from atheism to the Church.
When Our Sunday Visitor asked me to profile one of the nine leaders, the choice was easy: Bishop Christopher Coyne. Through his blogging, tweeting, and Facebooking, Bishop Coyne is a man after my own heart. He’s probably the most active bishop online, and has done more to encourage his fellow-shepherds to use new media than probably anyone else. Here’s what I wrote:
“In his message for the 44th World Communications Day, Pope Benedict XVI encouraged priests to “make astute use” of new media. After all, he asked, who better to “help the men and women of our digital age sense the Lord’s presence”?
Many priests have heeded that call, but few better than Bishop Christopher Coyne, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. In the last few years, he’s started a popular blog titled “Let Us Walk Together” and has connected with thousands of followers through Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
Every morning, Bishop Coyne tweets out short reflections on the Mass readings or the saints of the day, usually followed by a quote or prayer. His messages are then beamed across the world and even his brother bishops take note. One recently confessed to using Bishop Coyne’s daily Twitter reflections to craft his own morning homilies.”
Read the rest here.
Here’s an interview I did with Bishop Coyne a couple years ago:
Who are your outstanding Catholics of 2012?