We congratulate our client, the Church of St. Patrick in Armonk, for being featured in Catholic New York, the newspaper of the New York Archdiocese, on August 17, 2000. We gratefully acknowledge the staff at Catholic New York for making it possible for us to share this story with you on our website.

CNY/Chris Sheridan

SIGNING ON - Father John F. Quinn, the pastor, admires the work of religious education coordinator Mary Harnett, who built and maintains the parish Web site.

       A few years ago Father John F. Quinn, pastor of St. Patrick's in Armonk, knew very little about computers and was only vaguely aware that there was something called the Internet.
       But a close friend, the late Father John Haggerty, procurator of Msgr. Scanlan High School in the Bronx, was a technological whiz whose hobby was building television sets from scratch.
        That is, until he discovered the Web. After that, it was Internet all the way.
       Father Quinn remembers visiting Father Haggerty about three years ago and sitting through a tour of his online world.     "I was amazed," Father Quinn says now.
        He recalled Father Haggerty's words to him that day: "If St. Paul were around today, he would be on the Web."
   Said Father Quinn, "That stayed in my mind. It was after that, when I learned what the Web was all about, that I figured we'd give it a shot."
       The opportunity to take the next step came with the arrival last February of Mary Harnett as a part-time religious education coordinator.
       A public relations consultant with experience building and maintaining Web sites for her clients, she was eager to help--and with the pastor's enthusiastic backing, she designed and built  www.stpatrickinarmonk.org.
       "We thought it would be something very good for us in terms of getting our message out," Father Quinn said.
       With its new Web site, St. Patrick's joins a handful of parishes in the archdiocese who either have or are building them.
       St. Pius X in Scarsdale launched a colorful offering in March at www.stpiusXchurch.com, and Holy Trinity on Manhattan's upper West Side has one under construction at www.htnyc.org.
       An elaborate site that's been around for two years is at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in East Harlem. A Web-surfer logging on to www.mtcarmelnyc.org will find a schedule of Masses and other parish information, a photo album and full biographies of its priests, including a fascinating story of Italian-born Father Severino Dominicis, S.A.C., in Rome during World War II.
       Newly ordained, he was assigned to the Pallottine order's new Queen of Apostles parish, which was sheltering Jews from the Nazis. The priests told the Nazis the Jews had converted and supplied them with false baptismal certificates as proof.
       Then they secured Vatican passports for the Jews who escaped to Argentina. Once, tipped off that the Nazis were preparing to raid the church, the priests emptied its water tower on the roof and hid the Jews in it. "Those were dangerous days in Rome," he writes.
        Built and maintained by Deacon Carl D. Bartholomew, S.A.C., the site offers vocational information on the Pallottines, who administer the parish; loads of links to sites as diverse as the Vatican and the White House, and much more.
        The Web site of St. Patrick's in Armonk, one of the newest in the archdiocese, was launched on Easter Sunday and has had more than 260 "hits" so far.
       Aimed primarily at parishioners, the site's blue/green background home page has the appearance of the cover of a parish bulletin, with a picture of the church, a schedule of Masses and general information.
       Once logged on, a visitor has access to a listing of upcoming events, names of parish council members, a parish history, religious education information and a spiritual reflection by Father Quinn.
       "It's a tool," said Ms. Harnett. "We're using it to disseminate information throughout the parish and, hopefully, get more involved. It's a little like evangelizing in cyberspace."
       The Web site has been especially useful, she added, in managing the parish religious education program, which is "growing by leaps and bounds" as new homes are built in the area.
       "We have to limit the size of our classes," she explained. "With the Web site, parents can see which classes are still available."    In the near future, Ms. Harnett sees the Web site as an aid in attracting new parishioners as well. Recently, the Town of North Castle, which includes Armonk, agreed to offer a link to St. Patrick's site on the official town website, which lists religious institutions.
       With one click, potential newcomers to the area can learn about the parish and perhaps factor that into their homebuying decision.
       "These days, a lot of people shop for real estate on the Internet before they even visit a community," Ms. Harnett said. "This is a way of reaching them."