By Tom Tracy - Florida Catholic

MIAMI | Last year, the Illinois-based J.S. Paluch Company, which had managed and printed church bulletins for parishes across the country for over 100 years, announced that it would cease operations.

That left many South Florida parishes scrambling to find a new publisher – but also with an opportunity to review their bulletin and social media strategies to account for 21st century technologies.

At St. Augustine Church and Catholic Student Center, located across from the University of Miami campus in Coral Gables, Michelle Ducker Lopez said the parish elected to continue publishing its weekly church bulletin with the Wisconsin-based LPi group, which took over many of the existing Paluch accounts. Ducker Lopez is director of New Evangelization & Campus Ministry at the parish.

Other parishes in the Archdiocese of Miami have done the same, while also emphasizing more technological alternatives such as postings on social media and email newsletters – things they began experimenting with in earnest during the pandemic. Most parishes also make their weekly printed bulletin available online in digital format on their websites.

Most of those who spoke with the Florida Catholic agreed that some blend of online digital and traditional print material is still relevant and needed. 

At St. Augustine, Ducker Lopez and a team of staff and volunteers lay the groundwork for the weekly bulletin, which generally includes the upcoming Sunday readings; a letter from the pastor, Father Richard Vigoa; a saint of the week feature; a parishioner spotlight highlighting a member or parish family; event and ministry announcements and local advertising. 

“The bulletin highlights what is going on in the parish and by sharing the readings for the Sunday Mass and other announcements — including photos — we promote engagement with the ministries of the church,” Ducker Lopez said. 

Rounding out the church’s communications program is a weekly newsletter sent to the parish email list; Facebook and Instagram; daily and Sunday Mass livestreaming through a parish YouTube channel; and occasional text alerts to parishioners. 

“You need both print and online. In the life of a parish, hopefully you have all ages and generations, and so we ask ourselves, how do we provide a bulletin and get that in their hands, whether through the (smart) phone or through paper,” Ducker Lopez said. 

“My advice to other parishes would be to take small steps towards good and well-done communications and having some presence on social media — that is where people are spending their time, so the church needs to be there as well. There are so many things to celebrate and that is the heart of the church: to be more connected and involved,” she added.

At the Cathedral of St. Mary in Miami, Sister Mary Martha, a Servant of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary, is parish office manager and activities coordinator. She is in charge of designing and printing, in-house, the cathedral’s weekly bulletin, which is shared online and available at the church for its 900 member families. 

“We do a very simple bulletin on 11x17 sheets of paper, back and front folded in half, for a total of four pages with general information about church, Mass times, confession, liturgical details and contact information for the staff at the cathedral,” Sister Mary Martha said. 

The bulletin also lists weekly prayer intentions, religious education programing, retreat and wedding announcements, prayers for vocations, gift shop news and details of special collections. Much of the same information is repeated online at the parish website, on Facebook and Instagram, and in a seasonal electronic newsletter that publishes during Thanksgiving, Advent and Lent. 

Though mostly printed in English, some targeted announcements are written in Spanish or Haitian Creole as a reflection of the parish community. 

“There are parishioners who read it faithfully and if something seems off or missing or wasn’t announced that they think should have been announced they talk to us,” Sister Mary Martha said, adding: “There are others who like information shared in other ways such as email or word of mouth.”

“Something about doing it in-house is much more economical and I know sometimes with the publishing companies you have to get the bulletin design ready a week in advance,” Sister Mary Martha said. Doing the bulletin in-house allows for last minute tweaks and additions. 

“In life in general we would like to have things planned out earlier, but this allows us to be able to have more direct communications at the last minute, making the digital changes for the online platform,” she said. 

Like St. Augustine, Blessed Trinity Parish in Miami Springs turned to LPi to print its church bulletin, according to Linda Preston, office manager and ministry and pastor’s assistant. 

“It’s been fine. They have been on top of things and punctual. We print 350 copies,” Preston said. 

Its bulletins, also posted online, feature Mass intentions, information on retreats and religious education classes, youth group events, ladies guild announcements, and publicity for a “That Man Is You!” men’s group program.

Preston said LPi also sends her bulletin advice, ideas and ready-to-print content.

“For us, we have to turn in the bulletin content each Wednesday morning and that gives us enough time for the Sunday bulletin. It would be nicer to have more time, but Paluch was the same or even maybe earlier,” Preston said.

Blessed Trinity also maintains an active Facebook presence, with posts showcasing altar servers, eucharistic adoration, the parish men’s group and a video segment from the youth group. 

“I think people are looking more to social media now and it's the older crowd now who are looking at the paper version,” Preston said. “Some people use our Facebook, Mailchimp (newsletter), Instagram and the parish website.”

At Little Flower in Coral Gables, Jorge Santibáñez, parish life coordinator and director of Religious Education, said his parish moved the church bulletin printing to Michigan-based Diocesan publishing company following the closure of Paluch. 

“We print about 1,100 every weekend,” Santibáñez said. “Definitely, our older population appreciate this and are the first to grab it, but there is a value there to have that in people’s hands — both old and young read the pastor’s message every weekend and we see them flipping through the bulletin before and after Mass.”

Diocesan now handles the printing and online version of Little Flower’s bulletin plus a MyParishApp for cell phones. 

The bulletin features the weekly message from the pastor in English and Spanish, local Mass intentions, ministry events, and four to six pages of flyers with more detailed announcements of parish, ministry and archdiocesan events. 

“We don’t use social media a lot but definitely the more places parishioners are seeing things the better: the website, the printed copy, the app, and Facebook and Instagram. We try to get that announcement on as many platforms as possible,” Santibáñez said, adding that announcements ideally need to appear a number of times over a period of weeks. 

“I know it helps our ministries, and for retreat season, to get people signed up, people have to see (announcements) over and over again for three or four weeks and that helps cultivate registrations,” he said. 

“I always tell people it is ok to try something new and fail, and give it a shot and learn from it and move on to the next thing,” Santibañez added. “Social media might work for some parishes or demographics or not, but no way to tell until you jump in and do it.” 

St. Augustine’s Ducker Lopez agreed, noting that a lot of churches “just lean on the bulletin because it is always what they have known” but multiple platforms help multiply parish communications and community-building efforts. 

“There are many hands to make it possible and many gifted people — some are volunteers and some are paid staff,” Ducker Lopez said of the parish bulletin and other communications platforms. “‘I have my hand in all those things in one shape or form: assisting with Instagram postings; helping the graphic designer with flyers and bulletins; and everyone helps a little by sharing pictures. Celebrating the life of the parish is part of the culture of the parish and so people want to celebrate along with us.”