Archdiocese launches first new Web site in a decade

By Brandon A. Evans

A year of planning, consultation and work culminated on Oct. 11 with the launch of a new Web site for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.

The site, located at www.archindy.org, was launched just in time to feature ongoing news and photos from the archdiocesan pilgrimage to Rome for the canonization of Saint Theodora Guérin.

The Rome and Saint Mary-of-the-Woods coverage, posted by several people, has been the prominent feature of the also redesigned www.CriterionOnline.com, the online home of this newspaper.

The newspaper’s online edition was revamped for the first time in January 2005, and was wrapped into the first major redesign of the whole archdiocesan site since it went live about a decade ago.

The redesign of Archindy.org is in response to the growing demand for more information online, and the responsibility that the archdiocese bears toward using modern means of communication to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Since its launch 21 months ago, The Criterion Online Edition has been visited by nearly 170,000 people who have viewed half a million pages. Parish listings and other basic information on the archdiocesan Web site are also visited by thousands of people each month.

The new Archindy.org Web site is broken into seven categories, each of which are color-coded:

• Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein
• Priest and staff listings
• Parish listings
• Agencies and offices
• The Criterion Online Edition
• Catholic Charities
• Catholic Education

Within these seven areas, all of the archdiocese’s other pages can be found.

The broadest category, “Agencies and Offices,” includes the Web sites of about 25 unique offices or organizations, and features two special sites: Our Lady of Fatima Retreat House and the Legacy for Our Mission capital campaign.

Beyond a fresh design and the inclusion of more offices, the archdiocesan site now features full parish listings with photographs, a full and updated staff listing and other new features.

The archives of The Criterion Online Edition have been improved, as has the organization of its homepage.

The Office of Catholic Education will continue to retain its current design and functionality, and may one day be merged into the overall design scheme.

In the coming year, the archdiocese hopes to implement not only online giving, but also a powerful new database that will run the Web site. This will allow access to more features and the ability of individual offices to more quickly update their sites.

Readers are encouraged to browse around on the site and bookmark it for quick reference. Send any questions, comments or problems to webmaster@archindy.org.

(Brandon Evans is The Criterion’s online editor and the archdiocese’s Web site manager.)†