Monastery launches video-sharing Web site

By Linda M. Linonis

The Web site promises to be uplifting and positive.

ELLSWORTH — The Society of St. Paul has taken its mission, ministry with media, to a new level by launching www.stpaulstube.com.

The Rev. Jeffrey Mickler, Web master, who lives at the monastery on U.S. Route 224, west of Canfield, described the Internet venture as a “family friendly video-sharing site.”

“Videos are a growing means of communication in our pop culture,” said Father Mickler, who has been creating and uploading religious and spiritually based videos for nearly three years.

His efforts haven’t gone unnoticed in cyberspace. The Web site he created for Alba House, www.albahouse.org, which produces religious and spiritually oriented materials at the monastery, was labeled a “hot site” by USA Today in the late 1990s and a “cool site” by Kim Kommando, a national radio personality and self-proclaimed “digital goddess.”

Last year, he won $2,500 from Sharkle.com for his video, “Warren Jeffs’ Arrest and the Limits of Religious Freedom.” That video has garnered some 681,000 hits, to his amazement. In fact, he has 122 videos posted on YouTube with some 242,000 hits and videos on 19 other Internet sites such as My Space, Google and Yahoo. His topics include religious information, life issues and emotions.

Father Mickler said he envisioned stpaulstube.com as a cyber home, a social sharing Web site, with a welcoming tone. “People will be able to upload videos, audio, images and create their own blogs,” he said.

“The Internet is powerful tool for information. That’s the plus side,” Father Mickler added. He noted that the down side is that some users spew and try to spread vulgarity and violence.

He pointed out that this Web site will be different from many others in that it will be free of “vulgarity, profanity, violence, bigotry and anti-religious sentiment.”

Though the Web site is hosted by a Catholic-based group, it does not promote any religion though religious-based material is there. “It’s an ecumenical and inter-religious forum,” he said, noting that’s one avenue Web site participants can take.

Father Mickler said much of the content will be secular — about games, poetry, sporting events, pets, gardens and so on. He emphasized that stpaulstube.com will be free of the cyber bullying, criticism and crass comments that pervade many other such sites.

This Web site, Father Mickler said, will focus on offering positive and wholesome videos, audios and images. “As administrator, I get a notice when something new is uploaded,” he said, noting the material does not go immediately online. “I manage the content and look it over for anything offensive,” he said. If material is unsuitable, Father Mickler said it will not be posted.

As for blogs, Father Mickler said he will rely on participants to alert him to offensive material though he said he would be spot-reading them.

In the blogs, there’s choices of “post comment, send to a friend and offensive content.” Bloggers may upload a photo of themselves or use an “avatar,” a character or symbol to represent themselves.

Father Mickler said he drew on his experiences uploading videos on other sites to make stpaulstube.com easy to use and navigate.

“I’m been on some major sites that aren’t really user friendly,” he said. With a calming blue as background, visitors to the site can check out videos, images and blogs. But to comment or post anything, participants must register through a simple process that takes less than two minutes.

Already, the site has attracted attention and has 50 registered users, who have posted, for example, photos of pets and flowers, and offered writings on keys to success in family life and marriage. Viewers can click on “top videos, top images, top audio and top blogs.”

With this project, the Society of St. Paul continues to fulfill its mission as directed by the Rev. James Alberione, who founded the society in 1914. He instructed followers “to use the modern means of communications to spread the gospel.”

Father Mickler and Brother Dominic Calabro will be posting 52 10-minute videos about the life and teachings of St. Paul on the site.

linonis@vindy.com