Catholic Mobile cell service links faith, phones

Jean Torkelson, Rocky Mountain News

Published July 19, 2006 at midnight

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Catholic cell phone users can now let 'em ring to the tones of the Ave Maria and track the latest movements of the pope, thanks to the world's first Catholic mobile phone service, which launched last week.

Catholic Mobile, which has its U.S. headquarters in Denver, has linked all cell phone providers into its network, which makes the service universally accessible, said Alejandro Bermudez, based at the company's home office in Lima, Peru.

"This has been on the Catholic imagination for a long time," Bermudez said. "Until now, the problem was to make the technology work seamlessly with all the major carriers."

By sending a text message, users can access a menu of heavenly options: a biography of the saint of the day, a daily prayer, and a summary of the Bible reading used in Catholic Masses for that day. Each service costs $4.99 per month.

Details are at www.catholicmo bile.com.

The cell phone also can be decked out, with more than 100 choices of Catholic wallpaper, from popes to images of Mary, for $1.99 each, and programmed with a variety of classic ring tones.

At 49 cents per download, users can also access international breaking news provided by the Catholic News Agency, the Peru-based newsgathering service which is the provider for Catholic Mobile.

The online version of the Archdiocese of Denver Newsletter has a story about the launch of Catholic Mobile on its front page, and Bermudez has use of an office in the Denver Archdiocese when he's in town.

In a news release, Catholic Mobile is described as a partnership between Denver-based JP2 Media and the Missionaries of Faith Foundation, headquartered in San Diego.

JP2 Media delivers Catholic content in English, Spanish and Portuguese, and the Missionaries of Faith Foundation is aimed at promoting the Catholic faith by several means, according to the release.

Besides Denver, the news service has correspondents in Washington, D.C., and Birmingham, Ala., as well as Lima, Montreal and Rome.

How was Denver picked as U.S. headquarters?

"To make a long story short, everybody wanted to know the archbishop who brought World Youth Day to Denver - he put Catholicism on the map," said Bermudez, the news agency's director.

That led to a friendship between Bermudez and former Denver Archbishop J. Francis Stafford, now a Vatican-based cardinal, who brought the charismatic Pope John Paul II and a million young people to Denver for a historic gathering in 1993.

Since launching last week, Catholic Mobile has signed up nearly 1,000 customers, Bermudez said.

While he hopes for a huge international customer base, Bermudez knows where he wants to do his business travel.

"I personally fell in love with Denver, and I try to spend as much time as I can there," he said.

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