Many Australians are using Facebook to find out about the Church following an advertising campaign run on the social networking site last year.The Catholic Enquiry Centre, Australia, has received 327 inquiries from January to March this year compared with 543 for all of 2011.
They also reported that Facebook advertising accounted for 33.6 per cent of responses to the centre.
"Our plan is to continue to develop our social media presence for outreach given these results," the Centre's Director, Mrs Marita Winters, told the Australian bishops in a report.
"We have to be on the web, on Facebook and Google, so that when people go searching, the Catholic Enquiry Centre is the first one that comes up."