Joseph Fosco in a comment to an earlier post:
I have formed a Papal Committee this month, to prepare for Pope Benedict’s visit to America in April of 2008. Perhaps interested parties may volunteer their support in whatever way they can do to help.
When Joseph asked my thoughts via email, I suggested that it might be good if the Pope met with the poor as well as with influential people. Perhaps Catholic Charities could help set up some site visits. Jesus went among sinners, publicans, and tax collectors. I hope the Holy Father will not be offended that we Dumpster Dwellers (respectfully) discuss his visit here. For the sake of the discussion let us assume that both Joseph and Pope Benedict are on the up and up.
What does the Pope hope to accomplish on his American visit, Joseph? Is his visit timed for maximum impact in an election year? How will he tailor his message for Chicagoland?
Posted by: Mrs. Frist Do No Harm | January 28, 2008 at 02:30 AM
Must we assume that the Pope's "ethical media" initiative is without irony?
Posted by: Gerry | January 28, 2008 at 07:37 AM
The Pope called for an establishment of “info-ethics”...
I find it flattering that The Pope will be echoing my position on "info pr0n." (If you go to the bottom of the second page of comments you will find evidence of my influence. Have patience -- much of the thread is about Phil.)
Posted by: Antoine Möeller | January 28, 2008 at 08:14 AM
Joseph, What is your charge? Who else will be involved? Are there specific things on which you would like suggestions?
Posted by: phil | January 28, 2008 at 08:46 AM
Please help us build a village in Somalia. Click the following link to learn more about this project
http://www.liftkids.org/main/content/view/144/65/lang,en/
For every member that joins
http://www.UniFersal.com
they will donate 10cents to this cause. Its free to join or use the services of UniFersal.com
Posted by: nasir | January 28, 2008 at 10:41 AM
First, the group developed a basic materials take-away document [oil] with the essential information and attention-getting materials [gun muzzles, tanks]; second, they came up with an event-planning handbook [constitution] providing contacts and resources in the Tween Rivers [provisional authority]; and third was a fundraising strategy that teaches the organisms how to approach and attain donors [kneeling, pleading, feigning starvation].
"We don't talk a lot, we just do it," he said [Nike].
Posted by: Cloudy Waters | January 28, 2008 at 01:43 PM
Sounds ferseeing. I will help the Pope if he will.
Posted by: Drew P. Drawers | January 28, 2008 at 02:08 PM
I must admit that the response thus far seems encouraging. Thank you all for your interest. I just stumbled upon the thread that Phil has started for me; it was a very nice surprise (thank you Phil).
Thus far, my committee, our committee, the Papal Committee, has eight willing and capable board members. I wish to defer publically naming the members for a few more days as this is in such a grass-roots stage right now. However, I can promise you that we have some impressive people involved, which all have a very diverse background, are all-Catholic and are all leaders in their professions.
I will have a website for the Papal Committee up and running in the next few days that should be extremely informative. Our goal is to see underprivileged children as well as students, who are overachievers receive the rare opportunity of visiting the Holy Father. I will be working very hard with my contacts to establish visitation slots with the Holy Father. Initially, we will utilize the April 2008 Papal visit as our beginning. However, we are now looking at having an ongoing program that will not expire when the Holy Father leaves America, but will continue for as long as possible.
I wish to defer with sharing details for a few more days, I really need to have a clear understanding of several matters before I say anything further.
Thank you all and I promise you that you will all be very impressed.
Posted by: Joe Fosco | January 28, 2008 at 11:13 PM
Thank you, Joseph, for including us in your deliberations. I look forward to your website when it is launched. Quite interesting to think what long term projects could be given a boost by the Pope when he visits. "Our goal is to see underprivileged children as well as students who are overachievers receive the rare opportunity of visiting the Holy Father." Sounds like a well considered balance.
Posted by: phil | January 29, 2008 at 08:34 AM
Sounds Farsiing. Fixed that for you.
Posted by: crumple | January 29, 2008 at 01:31 PM
The Papal committee website is www.keystothevatican.org
Posted by: Joe Fosco | February 02, 2008 at 12:11 AM
The site is up now, however, in need of a great deal of further developing; www.keystothevatican.org
Posted by: Joe Fosco | February 04, 2008 at 08:07 PM
The site looks very nice. Lord Black is on the Advisory Committee, I see.
Posted by: phil | February 04, 2008 at 08:49 PM
Frankly, I very poor example of web design. I can't read grey on grey, and you can't change the font size. Very slick though, too bad it is inaccessable.
Posted by: Gerry | February 04, 2008 at 11:21 PM
Thank you for the constructive criticism, I have addressed those issues with the web designer. Please be aware that we are going to be tweaking things over the next few days. We will have all the bugs worked out soon.
Posted by: Joe Fosco | February 05, 2008 at 04:14 PM
Gerry,
Would you be kind enough to elaborate on your comment, “too bad it is inaccessible.” I would appreciate as much constructive criticism as possible.
Your,
Joe
Posted by: Joe Fosco | February 05, 2008 at 04:23 PM
"...I have addressed those issues with the web designer..."
Well done, Joseph. It IS difficult to read - even with my rose-tinted glasses. Interesting project, though. Good luck!
Posted by: Mrs. Frist Do No Harm | February 05, 2008 at 04:36 PM
Yes, thank you, Joseph, for letting us see your project. The teenagers sent to the Vatican will certainly be talking about it for the rest of their lives.
Posted by: phil | February 05, 2008 at 05:14 PM
Joseph, I don't think this is the place for Web Design 101. The lack of contrast between fonts and background is bad, but the use of text-images or flashisms or whatever that is is amateurish. Text needs to be text or you aren't really using a true web-based paradigm.
Posted by: Gerry | February 05, 2008 at 06:31 PM
Gerry, do text-images prevent the text (including names) from being indexed by the search engine and archive bots?
Posted by: Antoine Möeller | February 05, 2008 at 06:46 PM
The photographs are compelling. The overall impression to me was dignified and sincere. One question is how much more content will go up on the site, and how much of a navigation system it would need.
Posted by: phil | February 05, 2008 at 07:08 PM
Yes, unless you put the text in an "alt" attribute or something similar. Even then you don't get to control font sizes in the browser. Making a page scale well with font size is a key design goal for accessability. Similarly, a text to voice coder can't work on an image either.
Posted by: Gerry | February 05, 2008 at 07:27 PM
Good morning all:
Well, in terms of not being able to access the Keys To The Vatican site, now, you can enlarge the photo’s (we will continue to tweak and modify). The bios are larger and are continuing to be updated and elaborated. The main goal has been achieved, “exposure” and “accessibility.” Now, we must work on promoting our mission. Please help spread the word.
Sincerely,
Joseph Fosco
Posted by: Joe Fosco | February 06, 2008 at 11:40 AM
Francesco meets Pope Innocent III
Posted by: bUM fREE | February 07, 2008 at 02:10 AM
Maybe a set of links on Keys to the Vatican might include such texts?
Posted by: phil | February 07, 2008 at 08:54 AM