Father Andrew Rauenbuehler, right, pastor of St. Mary of the Visitation Parish in Iowa City, records a video at Omni Digital Group in Coralville alongside Brandon Landholt, the parish’s director of formation and evangelization.
By Lindsay Steele
The Catholic Messenger
IOWA CITY — The world doesn’t need another YouTube priest, Father Andrew Rauenbuehler believes, but he hopes his parish’s ongoing video series, Foundations of Faith, will help the Church become more visible and approachable on a local level. “There are people with better insights and info than we are able to provide, but the fact that it is made at home makes it personal for our community.”
Father Rauenbuehler has been interested in elevating St. Mary of the Visitation Parish’s online presence since being assigned pastor in 2024. Parishioner Cody Fitzjerrels, owner of Omni Digital Group in Coralville, suggested the video series and offered to donate studio space and recording services.
The priest experimented with various topics last year, “but all along I wanted to put together a more content-based series that would walk through fundamental aspects of our Catholic faith.”
Brandon Landholt, the parish’s director of formation and evangelization, helped Father Rauenbuehler bring the concept to life. “It’s really good to have someone like a priest, for example, who is able to be a face to connect with,” said Landholt, a former FOCUS missionary.
Landholt developed a list of topics and questions based on the parish’s Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA) syllabus and evangelization efforts. The topics help introduce people to the faith while sparking discussion among longtime Catholics who have questions or misunderstandings about the faith, Father Rauenbuehler said. The topics include God, Jesus, creation, the paschal mystery, the human person, divine revelation, the Holy Spirit, and the Church.
Landholt serves as the podcast’s host and asks Father Rauenbuehler a set of questions based on the episode’s topic. “It’s basic enough where we can just present it as an everyday conversation,” he said. “It doesn’t take a whole lot of prep for Father.” Still, the priest tries to improve his delivery in each recording by focusing on the quality — not the length — of his answers. The recording process was awkward at first, the priest admits. “It is something you only get more comfortable with by doing it.”
The parish has released nine videos in its Foundations of Faith series so far, with several more videos ready to be published on St. Mary’s website, social media, Flocknotes and YouTube platforms. Each post includes resources to help viewers “dive a little deeper” into the topics, Father Rauenbuehler said.
Feedback so far has been positive,and the series has led to at least one person enrolling in OCIA classes, Father Rauenbuehler said. The parish also has a series of “discipleship roadmap” videos, and recently started a new question-and-answer series.
The parish hopes Catholics and non-Catholics will find the videos helpful, now and in the future. “I think it’s been a means of connecting in a different way with people we’re with every Sunday, and present (Church teaching) in a different forum that allows people to begin asking questions and sparking conversations in the home,” Father Rauenbuehler said.
View St. Mary’s videos at https://www.youtube.com/@icsaintmary/videos or on the parish’s website, www.icstmary.org.
