austraLasia #1823
Blogging - you'd better believe it!
ROME...and other places: 20th April 2007 -- austraLasia is not a blog, but it is not unconnected with
blogging; indeed, before the word was fashionable, at GC25 (2002) a number of
Chapter members who used English as their medium of communication (which
doesn't mean they were English) were using what would only be called 'blogs'
(web logs) to communicate their thoughts, and it is no secret that the strong
possibility of the election of the current Rector Major was being discussed in
those electronic circles, which austraLasia was part of.
That's history. What people know today, of course, is
that blogging is no longer just a fad or a pastime. It is revolutionizing
the world of journalism to the point where major dailies are taking notice of
bloggers and even 'employing' them. There's good and bad in that.
There are a number of very well known ecclesiastical blogs,
some of them zany and off-beat, some of them further to the right of Ghengis Khan
than one could imagine possible, and some of them, well, probably better
connected than one could imagine possible. They are worth following, and
could even be said to be ignored, not at our peril, but to our disadvantage.
I follow any number of these blogs - because one learns
things from them, they are enjoyable (mostly), and some of them let one know
where young people are really at today, given that very many young people
'live' on the web, and yes, there are any number of young Catholic bloggers.
Usually one only needs to look at the images on the blog page to get an idea of
where they might be coming from (and where they are almost certainly going
to!). Try 'Irish Catholic and dangerous', for example. He's not Irish and
he's only very recently Catholic (though he did make the move a little earlier
than the 114 year-old lady from Taiwan spoken of yesterday). Many of them are
'apologetic'. Very. even the titles of the blogs - Phat Catholic Apologetics,
for example 'your protection against the wiles and snares of the devil', as the
blog puts it.
But there are some precious pearls amongst them all. If you
want something really, really intellectual but good, then 'Singing in the
Reign' isn't bad. 'The Shrine of the Holy Whapping' has long been my favourite
- a bunch of Catholic nerds, they call themselves, from the University of Notre
Dame. It's always clever, respectful, and often quite insightful.
If you want real insider information, though, try a
well-connected 23 year old who puts up 'Whispers in the loggia', and - this is
the point of all this - read the bit pertaining to April 18th! It
contains rather interesting information.
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