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Around 62 percent of adult U.S. Catholics have a profile on Facebook; 58 percent of Catholics 30 and under share pictures, articles and comments at least once a week; and nearly a third say they would like their pastors and bishops to use blogs. Those are some results of a study released by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. The study, “Catholic New Media Use in the United States, 2012,” was released on Nov. 11 in conjunction with the U.S. bishops’ annual Fall General Assembly in Baltimore. The report “suggests many opportunities for the church to engage with those who live on the ‘digital continent,’ as Pope Benedict XVI describes this new culture of communication,” said Bishop John Wester of Salt Lake City, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Communications. In fact, more than half the survey’s respondents said they were unaware of any significant presence of the church on social media.

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