Catholic blogging and blogging Catholics Fr Timothy Finigan Meeting of the Guild of Blessed Titus Brandsma. Blackfen. 1 October 2011

Blogging a serious criminal offence? Recently as you may well have read, Richard Collins (Linen on the Hedgerow) emailed those diocesan communications officers who have an email address to ask them whether any extra exorcists had been appointed to their diocese in response to Pope Benedict’s recommendation in 2007. Two have responded so far, one of them writing: Dear Richard Thank you very much for kindly responding with the information about your research. I am afraid that for personal ethical reasons I am not prepared to co-operate – I believe that blogging as currently manifested should be made a serious criminal office because of the significantly negative comments that are so often made about people who are trying to do their best are so destructive to the good of society. That is a good example of how Catholic blogs are seen by many in the Church, especially those who hold some kind of office. Fr Bernard Bassett once summarised the sins confessed by young children as ―naughty rude fighting.‖ That is more or less how blogs are portrayed in official circles. One reason for this is that everyone can point to examples of naughty rude fighting in comments boxes, and sometimes naughty rude fighting between high profile bloggers over whether Fr Traincrash is a disobedient scoundrel who is too full of himself or whether he is a victim of high-handed episcopal interference in his graced mission to save the world. Usually what happens is that other bloggers consider the matter carefully, look up some quotations from the scriptures, the Fathers and the magisterium, and weigh in with sensible, balanced analysis that helps everyone to make sense of the situation. We see this time and again: Fr Zuhlsdorf describes is as a ―reverse Gresham’s law.‖ In an economy, bad currency drives out good; on the Catholic blogosphere, good information drives out bad. It is certainly possible for a Catholic blogger to post something uncharitable, one-sided, and tendentious. He is likely to be answered in kind – but also to be answered in a charitable, moderate and considerate manner by other bloggers who have the knowledge, maturity and grace to do so. Most Catholic bloggers in my experience want to do good. They do it in various ways – mothers and fathers tell stories of bringing up their children, musicians write and post music for the benefit of others, those involved in beautiful liturgy post photographs to encourage us, people share their experience and erudition in a way that has never before been so open, democratic and accessible. This is what some people fear. If you have a vested interest in nurturing the myth that everything in the garden is rosy, it is business as usual and there is no real need for reform in the Church, the blogs are a pesky nuisance. If you want to have a Halloween Mass with a witch doing the reading and a devil giving out Communion and the priest going around at the end dressed as Barney the Bear, it is a shock to find that the whole world has seen this on YouTube. If a Bishop reacts to Summorum Pontificum by issuing a letter posing restrictions that contravene the Motu Proprio, it is discomfiting to find his letter analysed line-by-line by canonists and people with expertise in the liturgy. If a school tries to bulldoze parents into

allowing their children to be subjected to explicit sex-education that teaches them how to masturbate and shows cartoon animations of people having sex, it is obviously awkward to be named and shamed. I would suggest that it is this inconvenient publicity that makes some officials in the Church want to make blogging a serious criminal offence. When bloggers can access the text of documents from the Holy See and compare them to what is actually happening on the ground, it must be difficult if you are trying to gloss over the Church’s teaching and discipline and carry on as normal. We should also emphasise and ―celebrate‖ the good that blogs do by way of evangelisation, catechesis and the fostering of a devout life. Never before in the history of the Church has it been so easy to find answers to difficult questions about the faith. Apologists abound who give their time freely to post good quality articles explaining how we can be certain that God exists, explaining sensitively and convincingly the Church’s teaching on questions of sexual ethics. Homeschooling parents share hints, tips, advice, and educational materials with each other across the globe. And of course the reform of the liturgy which Pope Benedict has made a cornerstone of his pontificate, has been given enormous help by the many Catholic bloggers who have posted positive examples of the liturgy celebrated well, in accordance with the liturgical norms, and with the recovery of the sacred and beautiful that is our heritage. The other evening, at the Reception for the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, Fr Ray Blake and I went to chat to Mgr Keith Newton. I asked if I could get a photo of Mgr Newton with Fr Ray. Our conversation was unusual in this respect: Mgr Newton greeted us warmly and enthusiastically and thanked us effusively for the help that we had given to the Ordinariate by blogging about it. I did feel a little strange since being a Catholic priest blogger is normally met with suspicion if not outright hostility. Pope Benedict This suspicion and hostility is not shared by our Holy Father. He has made it clear that he understands and values the opportunities given by social communication, whilst prudently warning us of the dangers to which users are exposed. By way of example, let me simply point out the themes for the three last World Communications Days: The theme for the 43rd World Communications Day in 2009 was: ―New Technologies, New Relationships: Promoting a culture of Respect, Dialogue and Friendship‖ The theme for the 44th World Communications Day in 2010 was: ―The Priest and Pastoral Ministry in a Digital World: New Media at the Service of the Word‖ The theme for the 45th World Communications Day in 2011 was: ―Truth, Proclamation and Authenticity of Life in the Digital Age‖ It certainly seems that Pope Benedict is not opposed to the use of the internet by Catholics. In 2009, the Holy Father said that the desire for communication, ―should be seen primarily as a reflection of our participation in the communicative and unifying Love of God, who desires to make of all humanity one family‖ In 2010, the Holy Father encouraged priests to use the new media, mentioning blogs. Earlier this year, the Holy Father was again explicit in his encouragement to us:

―I would like then to invite Christians, confidently and with an informed and responsible creativity, to join the network of relationships which the digital era has made possible. This is not simply to satisfy the desire to be present, but because this network is an integral part of human life. The web is contributing to the development of new and more complex intellectual and spiritual horizons, new forms of shared awareness. In this field too we are called to proclaim our faith that Christ is God, the Saviour of humanity and of history, the one in whom all things find their fulfilment.‖ (cf. Eph 1:10). So blogging is not a serious criminal offence in the eyes of the Pope but an opportunity that he invites us to use. We must do so responsibly and with discernment, but not be paralysed with fear as though somehow blogger were something intrinsice malum. Examination of conscience As Catholic bloggers, we should indeed examine our conscience from time to time. We are all affected by original sin and by our past habits of sin. There are temptations that can particularly affect us, and we need to be on our guard against them. Here is a simple list of possible questions we might ask ourselves. Others could add items. Perhaps as bloggers we could try to draw up various possible examinations of conscience for our good and good of our colleagues. Do I promote:       

Charity Prayer Solidarity Loyalty to the Church Good Information on the faith Growth in faith Evangelisation

Do I fall into:     

Lack of charity Detraction Rash judgement Vulgarity Misuse of time

Thanks to bloggers As a priest, I would like to say to you, mainly lay people who blog: thank you for the time, energy, knowledge and experience that you bring to your writing. It is a consolation to me as a priest to be in communion in the Catholic Church with such good and generous people. Bloggers are generally modest about their blogs – ―Oh I only have a hundred visitors a day‖; but ask yourself who else gets the chance to preach to a hundred people every day? As a priest-blogger, I am particularly conscious of the duty to give a good example whilst using the quickfire medium of blogging with a bit of humour here and there, and a reasonable balance between appropriate criticism of what is negative in the Church and society, and highlighting the many good things that are being done, sometimes even the great heroism of Catholics that deserves to be known more widely. One criticism that is sometimes made of blogging and internet social media in general is that it gets in the way of real relationships. In my own experience I have found entirely the opposite. At every Catholic gathering I attend, I get to know people whom I would not

otherwise have had any relationship with, because of the Catholic blogosphere. My problem is not the lack of human contact but the impossibility of doing justice to all the good people who want to make contact. All of us, I think, have made new friends through our internet apostolate – and I don’t mean ―Facebook friends‖ but people whom we have met, got to know, prayed for and with whom we have sat down to eat. That is why I welcome so warmly the opportunity to provide hospitality to the Guild of Blessed Titus Brandsma for Catholic bloggers. There is no doubt in my mind that Blessed Titus would have been a blogger had the technology existed in his day. As would St Maximilian Kolbe, St Louis Grignon de Montfort and St Alphonsus. Imagine the discussions that would have taken place between St Thomas Aquinas and Blessed John Duns Scotus in their comboxes! Today we have the opportunity to meet face to face, to pray together and to eat together. I would like to finish by quoting some verses by GK Chesterton in ―The Flying Inn‖ which I read many years ago and once quoted as a young man myself. All of us, old and young, can, I think agree heartily with his sentiments: Now the Faith is old and the Devil is bold— Exceeding bold indeed ; And the masses of doubt that are floating about Would smother a mortal creed. But we who sit in a sturdy youth And still can drink strong ale— Let us put it away to infallible truth That always shall prevail.