(Jan. 09, 2013) In Pakistan, the Karachi archdiocese recently unveiled an online
Sunday school ministry targeting young people and internet and smartphone users. The
site offers an overview of the Sunday school’s yearly activities and statements and
photos of past events. There are 716 registered and volunteer Sunday school teachers
in Karachi serving more than 110,000 children. Fr.Saleh Diego, national director
of the online ministry, hopes to add more recruits with the new initiative. “Digital
evangelism is the need of the times. We are trying to catch youth where they are,
namely on smartphones and computers. Also it will help us overcome a shortage of teachers”,
he said. Fr.Qaiser Feroz, the only Pakistani priest with a graduate degree in
social communications, said the Church has yet to explore the full potential of cyber
evangelism but that the program was a step in the right direction. “The trend of
using the internet is increasing rapidly due to low-cost handsets that can connect
online. Most of the Church-run websites are dead within months because they are never
updated,” he added