Reflections on the *other* Rome blognic

Two days later than I *promised* but there you have it.

I found myself reflecting not only on the blognic, but naturally on blogs generally.

The good blogs do...

Blogs have given a means for ordinary people to get their views to a mass audience instantly, for free.

In a world starved of voices proclaiming Catholic truth, many blogs have become beacon points which people flock to.

In terms of advertising they have also really helped the little guy with a good cause. For example, the success (in terms of the number of people attending) the LMS pilgrimage to York this year was attributed largely to the blogs.

As a community which is getting smaller and smaller, blogs are a way of helping people find and connect with other Catholics. The event in Rome and the York event are examples of that.

Another point that was raised is that by highlighting scandal, blogs often are able to stop it in its tracks.

From my own perspective, I greatly appreciate the tackling of tough issues in the Church by blogs and other forms of the new media. Whenever something happens within the Church that might upset/disturb us that action has an ongoing impact. For a long time now, leaders of the Church have stopped apologising for actions that would in the past have been recognised as scandalous. A lot of the time they act like they're actually good things. Since I possess the ability to reason I can often see that they're not. So can most other people. Blogs have been a great way of getting the message out to people: hey! that's not actually the Church's position.

Other observations

Most of the bloggers had an awareness of just how addictive the internet can be and a concern that too much time on the internet has a negative impact on us.

I can't help thinking that were a blogger-saint to emerge one of their great messages would have to be 'you gotta spend less time on the blogs'....