Blogging Ministry

I find it very interesting to see that the Holy Father is encouraging priests to blog. The Catholic Herald last November published an article by Fr John Zuhlsdorf, one of the most well-known priest bloggers. It is a ministry of communication and teaching.

In 2002, Pope John Paul II saw the challenge and potential of the Internet. In the right hands, this medium of communication is a tool of evangelisation and education. Unlike printed books and newspapers, it is only limited by the number of people using connected computers.

The TAC too has discovered the incredible power of internet communication. True, we have had websites for years, but we haven’t really learned to use them. Some years ago, a priest friend said to me that a web site has to be constantly on the move, being added to, tended like a garden. How true! The blog makes this dynamism possible.

The multimedia computer makes learning easier and more fun for young people. It is a wonderful way to teach catechism, through using images and videos in association with the traditional teaching on the Creeds.

It has been over this past year that Pope Benedict XVI has become really aware of the implications of the Internet and the blogosphere. I could see computing and blogging as a new discipline in priestly training. What a good idea!

The Internet and the blogosphere have their risks of bringing out the worst of human nature, like people driving cars on the road. The interaction of persons is incomplete and our perception can become distorted. It is certainly easier to kill a man from a great distance with a rifle than close to with a knife! There are nasty and dangerous people we call trolls, the knuckleheads with whom no rational argument is possible. The downside is there.

Only now am I beginning to learn how to handle a blog debate in a thread of comments, dealing with real people, but whose personalities I cannot feel. It’s a hard job.

Just yesterday, the Holy Father called on priests to make “astute use” of internet technology. He urged us to be less notable for our media savvy than our priestly heart. This is truly a new era of the Church’s mission. The internet with its ease of use, but with its mortal dangers due to human sin, calls on us to deepen our spirituality and life of prayer. The Pope asks us to "give a soul to the fabric of communications that makes up the Web".

Blogging brings us into contact with people far and wide, people we would never have met by any other means. We come into contact with devout people, non-believers, people of all cultures and philosophies of life. I would hate my ministry to be limited to this “infernal machine”, but it certainly has brought a new meaning to my own priestly ministry right here on The Anglo-Catholic and on my own site.