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Blogging and the Church
Topic Started: Thursday, 14. February 2008, 16:05 (1,749 Views)
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I came across a brilliant blog, written by a Catholic quadriplegic "A blog where issues concerning people with disabilities intersect with observations about life, encouraging prayerful efforts toward social justice and inclusion of people with disabilities"
Wheelie Catholic
I commend it to the house

KatyA
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Rose of York
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I found a directory of Catholic Blogs, hundreds of them.

http://catholicblogs.blogspot.com/
Keep the Faith!

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Rose of York
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A parish with a blog could help parishioners maintain some contact between Sundays. People who cannot get to Mass at all, could keep in touch. The problem I see is that if all parishioners were free to post, people who have an axe to grind could upset people.

A parish forum could announce births, marriages, deaths, and if an event was cancelled, people could be notified.

There could be a column about local events (not Catholic ones) to encourage people to get involved in the wider community. RCIA could have its own spot.

The possibilities are many (not endless, that would make them eternal!).

Does anybody know of parishes that have tried this?

Keep the Faith!

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Phil_sfo

We set up a web site for our parish last year. I still don't have the proper address. It can't be found by Google - but I've just found out who is now completing the set-up. HOWEVER....... not too many people are interested I understand which seems a shame as there is a local website for the village which is probably one of the largest one in central Scotland.
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Phil_sfo
Wednesday, 4. June 2008, 19:04
We set up a web site for our parish last year. I still don't have the proper address. It can't be found by Google - but I've just found out who is now completing the set-up. HOWEVER....... not too many people are interested I understand which seems a shame as there is a local website for the village which is probably one of the largest one in central Scotland.
It would be a good idea to ask the local website to include a link to the parish site.
Our parish website took a while to become established but it improved when the url was included in the weekly newsletter. (That took a direct approach to the PP, circumventing the green cardigans)
KatyA
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Rose of York
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Phil_sfo
Wednesday, 4. June 2008, 19:04
We set up a web site for our parish last year. I still don't have the proper address. It can't be found by Google - but I've just found out who is now completing the set-up. HOWEVER....... not too many people are interested
Phil some of the parishioners may not be interested, so they think nobody else is.

Have you tried telling them that a website may be the only way some sick people and carers can keep up to date with what is happening? I suggested a newsletter be placed in the glass door of our church, for the benefit of people unable to get to Mass on a particular Sunday, but able to get into town during the week. The answer was "If they can get into town during the week, they can get into town to attend Mass, and collect a newsletter when they are there. If they are housebound, the Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion takes them a newsletter." I could not get it into their heads that a shift worker may be working during the only Mass, or a person may be sick, has a private reason for not being visited by an Extraordinary Minister, but the carer might be free to go into town one day during the week. A website is very useful to people in those or similar situations.

The truth is some people do not like new ideas. If those who "do everything" do not know how to set up and run a website, they might not like letting new blood in!

Every week I look at the website of the parish where I grew up and still have family connections. I keep up to date with "pastoral reorganisation" in that area and occasionally read of births, marriages and deaths in families whom I know. That gives me an opportunity to contact them, if appropriate.
Keep the Faith!

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Derekap
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I don't approve of a "free for all" parish blog. I think it would be too tempting for ladies with green cardigans and men with green jumpers (like me) to hog it with their personal views and activities.

I realise that for practical and human reasons the situation of practical church information is a bit chaotic having grown up like topsy turvy.

First of all there should an overal directory of diocese and parishes, like the book version which is, or used to be, published. This could refer to a parish website updated weekly like the paper bulletin. The most important elements are accuracy, being kept up to date and clearly set out. Some are a work of art which would make Rembrandt envious but not updated or even if they are, not easy to browse. Some give the address of the Presbytery but don't tell you that the actual church is in another street! When I first wished to find some information about St Anselm's Church situated in Kingsway London, very close to Holborn Undergound Station, I eventually discovered it is supposed to be in Lincoln's Inn Fields a little distance away! I only quote this as an example of many I have come across. Certainly a parish website can be very helpful to visitors and parishioners unable to attend either a particular week (maybe holiday or sickness or work) or longer peiods for whatever reason. Like Rose I refer to the available websites in my native city in order to keep up with events.

Obviously there could be a "Stop Press" section included for interim announcements, though it is unlikely many would refer to it daily.

Edited by Derekap, Wednesday, 4. June 2008, 22:14.
Derekap
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Rose of York
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Derekap
Wednesday, 4. June 2008, 22:12
I don't approve of a "free for all" parish blog. I think it would be too tempting for ladies with green cardigans and men with green jumpers (like me) to hog it with their personal views and activities.
The solution would be to have a parish internet forum in which no post appeared until approved. The moderator would be a lady of the Guild of the Green Cardigan. Contributions with which she disagreed would be vetoed. Posts made by fellow members of the Guild would, naturally, be automatically approved.

:rofl:

Seriously, though, it could be a dangerous idea. It could be used by people with bad intentions, publicly posting comments that would damage the reputations of the parish priest or individual parishioners, or leading to friction within the community. Who could prevent persons joining, who may or not be Catholics, and have an axe to grind?
Keep the Faith!

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Phil_sfo

I think I'll take your advice KatyA and Rose, and become involved in the web site. The local village site might not be too keen on me as I complained recently and had them remove some jokes with graphics that were obscene. However, it's a good idea to have such a link and I'll have a chat with the chap in charge of the parish site to see how it can be best utilised. Thank you.
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Rose of York
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Phil could it be that the people who think nobody will be interested in a parish website take that attitude because they have time to spend a lot of time at church, so always know what is going on? It could be they do not appreciate that people who can only get to the church once a week, would benefit from a website.

May I make a suggestion?

How about a parish website having a section headed "Help wanted please". I have a problem, in that at the little chapel I attend, everything that is done has been done by the same people for years. When one of them needs a hand with anything, they phone their pals (the same little group all the time). It could be that they are unaware that those people who "are not interested in being involved" would volunteer, if they knew what help is needed.
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Fr Finigan draws attention to Gerald Warner's Telegraph blog where he writes about cappaphobia. I think it will amuse quite a few
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I first came across this clinical condition when shown a samizdat publication issued by a beleaguered group of progressive Catholics from an address in King Street Cloisters, which atmospherically evokes a huddled catacomb. A letter to the editor began: "Seeing Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos vested in a cappa magna in Westminster Cathedral was a chilling experience."

An accompanying photograph, without even the health warning "May contain some flash vestments", illustrated the offending garment, a long train of scarlet moire silk being worn by Cardinal Castrillon at the celebration of the Tridentine Mass in Westminster Cathedral on June 14. The acute allergic reaction this vesture produces among cappaphobics should not be underestimated.

Gerald Warner

KatyA
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At the risk of drawing attention away from Gerald Warner's musings, I thought this entry by Fr Sean Finnegan on his blog was rather more important. Could it be that the bishops, both here and in USA want to censor "Priest's Blogs"?
Valle Adurni
 
Mac has come up with quite a story; as you probably already know, she has received a tip-off that the bishops' conference is concerned about priest bloggers, and may move to 'rein in' our writing.
To be perfectly honest, I am not very surprised; at least, only surprised that it has taken them so long. For many years, the conference has been accustomed to control information distribution, through ownership (either real or moral) of the Catholic press. It is very easy to marginalize or discredit opinions of which one disapproves when access to a readership is in the hands of people of pronounced views of one sort or another. It is, I suppose, not very different to the thoroughgoing censorship that was customary in the first half of the twentieth century, following on the modernist crisis. Only in the other direction.
The internet has produced a new phenomenon. It is no longer necessary to submit to an official or editorial position in order to get into print; Anyone at all can reach any reader simply by starting a blog whether one is into steam trains, courgette cultivation or religion.

Valle Adurni

KatyA
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Rose of York
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KatyA
Monday, 14. July 2008, 19:40
At the risk of drawing attention away from Gerald Warner's musings, I thought this entry by Fr Sean Finnegan on his blog was rather more important. Could it be that the bishops, both here and in USA want to censor "Priest's Blogs"?
The English bishops don't censor priest's blogs, because they have worked out that the internet is a huge piece of mesh attached to two fishing trawlers in the North Sea. Nice, harmless old chaps aren't they?



Keep the Faith!

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Derekap
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I stray from the point a little but.... Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos seems to suffer from various presentations of his name even within the same context of an article. Either his full name is used or Cardinal Castrillon or Cardinal Hoyos is used, or two or the three versions are used. At first I thought an earlier writer (not necessarily a forum member) was talking about two different people. I wish writers would decide what his name should be.
Derekap
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Again, thanks to Fr Tim Finigan of -hermeneutic-of-continuity for drawing attention to a series of posts by Fr Steven Fisher on Canon Law as applied to clerical blogging:

He concludes:
Fr Steven Fisher
 
So, in conclusion, there are various rights and duties at play in this whole question of “priestly bloggers” and the question is by no means simple.
There are various things the bishops could do, with varying degrees of scope (and success). Were they to try to do something it would be quite likely that the diocesan curia would become clogged; and it is highly likely that the Holy See would be requested to intervene by one or other party.
Realistically parish priests put more matters concerning faith and morals in their weekly newsletters. One could probably put an argument for requesting an imprimatur on every parish priest's column in his weekly newsletter (particularly if he makes it available to the whole world by putting it on the parish website...)
Perhaps some advice from the Congregation of Clergy, and the Pontifical Council for Social Communications would be a prudent step.

Semper eadem blog
KatyA
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