Comparing Catholic and Geek Communities

As someone who is both in the Catholic world and the geek world I make comparisons and contrasts between these two communities.

When it comes to the use of technology I find that the geek community is much more invested and active.  This fact at first blush would seem rather obvious that geeks take to new technologies and platforms quicker. Yet with the sheer number of Catholics in the world the fact that technology-focused communities have a larger and stronger presence is not a good sign.

One thing I had been thinking about is that there are many daily technology news podcasts.  These types of shows usually involve a group of people and bring on guests for specific technical knowledge. Yet there is really not one daily Catholic news show in this format.  Vatican Radio comes the closest and has a nice international perspective, but I grew tired of all the climate change coverage.  Al Kresta’s radio show which is also podcasted takes a couple of subjects each day to cover and I think does a good job with bringing in knowledgable guests.  Although this show also reruns previous shows rather often and so you don’t really get daily coverage.  Catholic Answers usually has a monthly show on Catholic news.  Rome Reports does a decent job of  daily video coverage of the Vatican. EWTN’s weekly “The World Over” also covers the news along with Raymond Arroyo’s interests.  The Good Catholic life podcast does cover daily news, but it more focused (as it should be) on diocesan happenings. The Catholic Underground weekly podcast has a nice “intersection of faith and culture” with both Catholic and tech news. Catholic Weekend also covers news of the day to some extent.  There are various more long form radio shows such as the Son Rise Morning Show and others that intersect into this area.  But really there are no daily wrap-up shows in the roughly 30 minute format with multiple commentators and guests able to weigh in on specific areas.

I would love there to be a daily show of Catholic news from a panel of people along with guests.  Something in the 30 to 40 minute range.  Providing a Catholic view of what’s going on helps to give listeners a solid perspective.  In fact there should be multiple shows of this type that could focus on stories of international and national interest for Catholics.  Of course the time and money involved requires a lot of effort and Catholics as a whole really don’t support these efforts. On the other side, tech podcasts networks such as TWIT and 5by5 are making money and paying the people involved in the shows.  Leo Laporte’s TWIT network was able to even build a studio providing high quality video and audio productions.  Catholic media is always seemingly in a constant state of survival.  Pledge drives are very common or requests from EWTN to send donations.

As I noted the other day while there are some very good Catholic shows, there really should be so many more of them.  There are many more Apple related podcasts for example than Catholic podcasts.

I think it is rather embarrassing that geeks seem to support such endeavors much more than Catholics as a whole do. I like playing around with gadgets and staying abreast with the world of technology, but my faith is so much more awesome.  The treasury of the Catholic faith is so immense that in our lives we can but put a dent into it. What is more wonderful than Jesus or savior and the Church he gave us? I guess the answer is gadgets and other shiny things.