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Few Catholic schools’ websites show Catholic marker, study reveals

stained-glass-646928_1280Using seven markers taken from a church document on catholicity of Catholic schools, only 21 percent of Catholic colleges and universities’ in the Philippines had Catholic marker, according to a study published at IAMURE International Journal of Social Sciences.
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The present study was inspired by a similar study in 2011 on the extent of Catholicity of Catholic schools’ websites in the United States of America. The seven markers, taken from Ex Corde Ecclesiae written by Pope John Paul II in 1990, were the following: Lead Academic Statement, Affiliation with Sponsoring Catholic Entity, Catholic Heritage, Catholic Service, Catholic Worship, Catholic Homepage, and Human Resource Page.

The findings of the study revealed that 75 out of 77 school websites had the Lead Academic Statement present. It was followed by Affiliation with Sponsoring Catholic Entity with 71, and Catholic Heritage with 55. The other four were Catholic Service (45), Catholic Worship (37), Catholic Homepage (16), and Human Resource Page (0).

One interesting note was the low score on the Catholic Homepage with only 16 out of 77 school websites. Catholic Homepage is the first thing a visitor will see in a website. It showed that many of the websites were not able to show a Catholic marker in the homepage.

“The study does not judge the totality of the schools’ Catholic identity,” the authors explained. However, they added that the school website should not be underestimated in its role of explicating Catholic identity.

The authors also suggested for Catholic school administrators to review seriously their school websites and to consider maximizing the power of this medium in explicating the school’s Catholic identity.

Randy A. Tudy, PHD of Cor Jesu College, Philippines and Stephen E. Gambescia, PHD of Drexel University, USA collaborated on this study entitled “Catholic Identity through the Lens of School’s Official Website”. The study was conducted in 2013 but was published in 2014 by IAMURE International Journal of Social Sciences, volume 11, July 2014, and can be accessed at http://iamure.com/publication/index.php/ijss/article/view/914

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