Before becoming a familiar face in Acadiana for decades as a television news anchor, Blue Rolfes worked for the Diocese of Lafayette. In the late 1970s Msgr. Richard Greene was her pastor and boss at her first job in the media department of the diocese, before each walked a new path in the community. When the Bastile born Bishop J. Douglas Deshotel moved from the Diocese in Dallas, he brought with him innovative ideas to communicate with the public. Together the Bishop and Rolfes are keeping Catholics informed about what is happening throughout the church and parishes of Acadiana.

How did this new job come to be?

It was the Bishop’s idea. When he came here three years ago he couldn’t believe we didn’t have social media whatsoever. The website hadn’t been updated in 10 years. He’s really tech savvy and carries his iPad everywhere. It’s been amazing. Next week it will be two years. I was worried doing the same exact job for so many years, would my skills transfer, but they have. Since I was a member of the news media, I can anticipate what they are going to want from us. I’m so grateful for the years at the station, it was wonderful. I got to do everything I ever wanted. It was just time. 

Didn’t you actually do a lot of what you’re doing now, when you were at the TV station?

Yes, in fact newspapers and broadcast TV had the same problem about 10 or 15 years ago. People weren’t doing “appointment news,” sitting down at 5, 6 and 10 watching the news. They wanted it on their phones — now — 24/7, fresh content digitally. We now have videos, interactive, they’re trying to evolve. We post something new every two hours. 

How do you post so often?

Before I go to bed at night I’ll put in maybe 16 posts. But some of them are happy birthday to the priests across the diocese, best wishes for anniversaries of ordinations and even Saints of the Day, something about who that Saint was and how they became martyred and a member of the church. Those things can be done in advance, scheduled posts. Then we have so many different ministries to promote and so many schools. They’ll send us videos of the kids singing. The music minister at Opelousas Catholic is going to be on American Idol, things like that. The standards for posting are super high. We have to make absolutely sure everything is keeping with church doctrine, teaching and church families.

What about your job is the most consuming?

Gathering content. There are so many sources to go to. There are 121 churches in the diocese and 30 missions, smaller churches in rural areas. They’ll usually be attached to a larger parish and priests come to do the Masses. There are more than 35 schools in six civil parishes in the diocese. We were the first carved out of the New Orleans diocese. 

Do you have a staff?

I have three staff members. The diocese had a budget for a secretary but with the Bishop’s approval, I reworked the budget. We’re experimenting with Instagram because a lot of the younger kids use it but it is mostly photographs and we always want to include some theology. We’re trying to figure that out right now.  

Who is your target?

All parishioners and that’s what the challenge really is, because people in every part of their life have different needs at different times. With young people they grow up in families and the church is right around them. Then they move and the church is not so accessible. And we look at all the challenges of young parents, usually both parents working plus all the activities at school, their needs, too, and their money is tight. It’s a challenge.  The bulletin is a big thing to help us communicate. Each church has an editor and they’re wonderful. We’ll send out an email blast to them asking them to help share the information. 

What is the address for the social media sites?

My second day on the job I created the Facebook page, it is Diocese of Lafayette. We’re up to 18,000 followers which is more than the Diocese of New Orleans. There are two Diocese of Lafayette, but we were the first, carved out of the Diocese of New Orleans in 1918. There is another in Indiana but their official name is Diocese of Lafayette in Indiana. Https://twitter.com/DioLafayetteLA is the Twitter address.