From the Philadelphia Inquirer: Lenten message via hot medium — YouTube.
And you thought YouTube — the on-line video mall starring anybody — was just about teenagers lip-synching to Justin Timberlake.
Oh, ye of little faith.
One of the newest (and unlikeliest) faces to emerge on this new communications technology is a middle-aged churchman, talking about Lent.
His name: Cardinal Justin Rigali, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Philadelphia. And his appearance on YouTube appears to be a first for any Catholic prelate.
"Dear friends in Christ," he says softly, dressed in a black cassock and gazing into the camera. "As we entered Lent on Ash Wednesday, the church encourages us as Catholics to practice fasting… ." (…)
And it has found an audience. By Friday afternoon – about 40 hours after the archdiocese posted his clip – he had 3,079 "hits," or views.
According to YouTube’s own tabulation, this made his the 16th most-watched English-language clip of the day and the eighth most-linked in the category of videos and blogs.
(I’ve removed the link to philly.com, as the article is no longer available on their website.)