News Release #329

Released to media on January 5, 2001

New Ulm – Its hip, its young, its quick, and its right at you! says vocations director Rev. Brian Oestreich of the website, www.OurMIB.org, aimed at 13 to 24 year old males. The flashy, effective internet site is only one component of a marketing campaign designed to recruit young men to the priesthood for the Catholic Diocese of New Ulm, Minnesota, and its working!

Rev. Brian Oestreich says the design of the site is tongue-in-cheek, playing off Men In Black - the movie. Since the site was launched in early 1999, www.OurMIB.org averaged 5,000 hits per month offering on-going conversation with interested candidates for the priesthood from as far away as Hungary and France. Priests are featured on the site who talk about their personal interests, spirituality, and their commitment to serving the church. The innovative site offers information and pastoral connectivity through the most effective means of communication technology available to young people today. Plans are underway to syndicate the site so other dioceses can come on board and benefit from the momentum already generated.

The project began in 1998 when diocesan leaders began brainstorming about the challenges of vocation recruitment. The decision to use the internet as the hinge-pin of the campaign brought together creative people, volunteering their labor, from New Ulm, Minneapolis, Moscow, and South Africa a world wide team of art directors, designers, writers, musicians, video editors, and web developers working together on the world wide web. All promotional items tease people to the website including: a Hollywood style poster featuring Our Men In Black II The Seminarians; phone cards; postcards, pencils, mouse pads, caps, jackets, T-shirts, and a series of 15 second television commercials, with air time scheduled locally during the upcoming Superbowl!