Fr. Jim Martin Has A Rather Simplistic Review of Catholic Blogs

I mentioned this AP article earlier at my post The Associated Press Looks at Conservative Catholic Bloggers!

The every quotable Father Martin has chimed in we see. The Deacon Bench has his comments at Bloggers "shining a spotlight on Catholics who do not live the faith"

He says:
This is a disastrous trend for the Catholic church, for several reasons.

First of all, too many of these inquisitorial bloggers attack anonymously, which makes it next to impossible to hold them to any real accountability. Likewise, many commenters on such blogs also hide their real identities when carrying out their own attacks, which also get linked to and repeated by other bloggers. This seems utterly craven and completely cowardly: If you are so sure of your fidelity to the Catholic church, so sure of the veracity of your opinions, and so sure of your mission, why are you hiding behind a pseudonym?

Those who are attacked by those bearing fake names have real names, real reputations and real jobs at stake. Second, many these attack-bloggers betray little theological knowledge. It is one thing to be informed by a theological scholar with years of relevant experience working at the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, for example, that your article or book or lecture is not in keeping with the tenets of faith. Or to have your work critiqued by someone who has carefully considered your arguments, and after weighing what you say regarding the tradition, responds in charity.

It is quite another to be attacked with snide comments by someone barely out of college who spends his days cherry-picking quotes and thumbing through the Catechism in an endless game of gotcha.

Third, the focus of their blogs is almost risibly narrow. Here are the sole topics of interest, in the order in which they cause foaming at the mouth (or on the keyboard): homosexuality, abortion, women's ordination, birth control, liturgical abuses and church authority. Is this the sum total of what makes us Catholic?

Now what to say to all that. There is no doubt that Catholic blogs of all types need to be self critical. However Father Martin needs to be it appears more aware of the reality of Catholic blogs.

Those issues he list have made Commonweal, the publication he is associated with America, US Catholic, and last but not no means least the National Catholic Reporter foam at the mouth for decades.

The difference now a days is the the balance in the force has been corrected. That is the above publications no longer have a monopoly in the American Catholic media. In fact now the American Catholic media is having to compete with the entire Anglo Catholic media worldwide.

But is he correct that blogs ( and one gets a feeling he is thinking just so called "conservative") blogs have such a limited viewpoint.

I think not.

Now there will always be the person that can go on the net start a blog and engage in a non stop war against his Diocese. However in the whole scheme of things how much they do account for as to Catholic blog land? Maybe 1 percent? Now it is true as to the wider Church many blogs are holding some people's feet to the fire. However are all these people uneducated? Are they not often citing other compelling authority that does not just include the Catechism? I think so.

However what is irksome about Father Martin's comments is the well the ignorance. This ignorance strangely can be seen as to how conservatives and blogs are portrayed. It fails to note the wide diversity of opinion.

As to "conservative" blogs (I prefer the term Orthodox) we see this diversity all over the place. In fact locking at the main blogs Catholics go too and link every day it readily apparent.

OSV has a link to a list today of the biggie Catholic blogs (though I think that list is leaving a couple of biggies out like The Anchoress , American Catholic, and the widely read Mirrors of Justice. However it is the big ones.

Now for some blogs they will have a niche. For instance I don't expect a blog whose concerns is workers rights to talk about lets say birth control. I don't expect a blog whose primary focus is on Liturgy to lets say comment on the issue of the just wage.

Most of those blogs appear to me in the very Orthodox category and engage a wide variety of issue. There has been over the last two years a very robust discussion among these blogs about "Just War" , immigration, economics, Health Care, the use of enhanced interrogation techniques etc etc. In fact many of those blogs listed often engage each other with somewhat opposing viewpoints. It gets heated at times but it is robust and indeed often intellectual

If Father Martin was paying attention he would have noted that.

Further those blogs have been critical in getting information out that the secular press ignores. They get past the Catholic sound bite we hear way too much of. For instance if not for many of those blogs and their help the recent Papal trip to the UK and the Holy Father's message would have gone unnoticed.

The above blogs have played important roles in the sexual abuse crisis. They have kept the heat on the Church however they were a important part of correct misleading reporting by the secular press this year.

Finally on top of that they talk about ole fashion Christianity and the Gospel and how we can apply it to our lives.

So while bloggers need to be challenged to blog in Christ at their side I find Father Martins complaints a tad overblown.