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It has been rather interesting to see media coverage regarding Leah Libresco’s conversion from atheism to the Catholic faith. What is most interesting that there is any coverage at all, but I have seen a couple of article on prominent media sites along with her interview on CNN. I ddon’t think I have ever seen coverage of this type before. Patheos must have more of the media’s attention than I had guessed, but this is not the first prominent atheist blog that converted to Christianity. The former “The Raving Atheist” site was one or the earliest atheist blogs and it also had quite a large forum for followers of that site. There was some coverage when prominent atheist philosopher Anthony Flew became a theist. Still people who blogged as an atheist and later became Catholic are still rather rare and rarely do we get to see that process as we did with Jennifer Fulwiler. I can’t think of an example of a prominent Catholic blog that became an atheist blog, but can recall one that converted to another church and one that decided to dine from the buffet instead and soon disappeared.

Among Catholic bloggers there are certainly a fair number who became bloggers after their conversion or reconversion to the faith after some period of time in atheism. I also remember one of the early Catholic blogs from an ex-atheist who became a Monk in an Eastern-Catholic Church.

In this article covering the story.

Libresco’s announcement has left some atheists scratching their heads.

“I think atheists were surprised that she went with Catholicism, which seems like a very specific choice,” Hemant Mehta, an atheist blogger at Patheos, told CNN. “I have a hard time believing how someone could jump from I don’t believe in God to a very specific church and a very specific God.”

Well judging by the thousands of comments on Leah’s site his person is not alone with this question. Though really from an atheist’s point of view any belief in God of whatever form is on par with believing in the Easter Bunny.

But really why a “specific church and a very specific God.”? Well in my case I would say it was because truth has specificity. There is something about conversion to the Catholic Church that can draw almost an equal negative reaction from an atheist or a fundamentalist Protestant and sometimes for very similar reasons.

That specificity of truth is what drove me to the Catholic Church. The claims of Eastern mysticism held no such attraction for me and I found the claims of Protestantism varied from congregation to congregation and neighborhood church to neighborhood church. Again it was specificity that kept me looking at and researching the Catholic Church and her claims to authority. My understanding of the Church as being anti-science fell away as I truly looked at her history and I found that I was anti-science in that I had totally discounted “The Queen of the Sciences” theology.

The more I read I was also surprised at the consistency and how deeply the Church hod thought on various subjects. This made me rather embarrassed for some of the things I had previously believed regarding the Church. That from a distance I was coming up with “unanswerable” objections as if nobody had ever answered them in 2,000 years. I found instead that really it is only the Catholic Church that could fully satisfy an ex-atheist.

Hat tip to Thomas L. McDonald for the link to the story.

The fourteen days from June 21—the vigil of the Feasts of St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More—to July 4, Independence Day, are dedicated to this “fortnight for freedom”—a great hymn of prayer for our country. Our liturgical calendar celebrates a series of great martyrs who remained faithful in the face of persecution by political power—St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More, St. John the Baptist, SS. Peter and Paul, and the First Martyrs of the Church of Rome. Culminating on Independence Day, this special period of prayer, study, catechesis, and public action will emphasize both our Christian and American heritage of liberty. Dioceses and parishes around the country have scheduled special events that support a great national campaign of teaching and witness for religious liberty.

Fortnights etymology is from fourteen days. I looked this up since I was vaguely aware fortnight was a period of two weeks. This period starting from the feast of St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More until July 4th could hardly have more appropriate starting and ending dates as both being connected to religious liberty. Though there is some irony concerning St. John Fisher who was the only English bishop that really stood against King Henry VIII. This time around there is a solidarity among American bishops that we rarely see. How that solidarity will continue if Obamacare is not overturned and/or the President is reelected remains to be seen.

Prayer for the Protection of Religious Liberty
O God our Creator,

Through the power and working of your Holy Spirit,
you call us to live out our faith in the midst of the world,
bringing the light and the saving truth of the Gospel
to every corner of society.

We ask you to bless us
in our vigilance for the gift of religious liberty.
Give us the strength of mind and heart
to readily defend our freedoms when they are threatened;
give us courage in making our voices heard
on behalf of the rights of your Church
and the freedom of conscience of all people of faith.

Grant, we pray, O heavenly Father,
a clear and united voice to all your sons and daughters
gathered in your Church
in this decisive hour in the history of our nation,
so that, with every trial withstood
and every danger overcome—
for the sake of our children, our grandchildren,
and all who come after us—
this great land will always be “one nation, under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Totally concur with what Julie at Happy Catholic wrote on his passing. I reread a couple of his books last year to come to realize they were even better than I remembered and that I had grown in being able to appreciate them better. He is certainly one of the authors that elevated Science Fiction by his talent. The genre did not limit his writing ability and he expanded the genre instead.

One of my favorite SF authors is Michael Flynn and I have read his whole catalog. The fact that he is a faithful Catholic certainly adds to my esteem of the author – but foremost he is a great SF author. I write this because his new book of short stories “Captive Dreams” which is coming out in August is available now on the publishers site for $7.99 and it will be $9.99 when it is released.

“Prometheus Award–winner Flynn (In the Lion’s Mouth) assembles six tales delving into deep melancholy and moral ambiguity. Each story builds from scientific what-ifs to a reality of human fragility and despair. In “Melodies of the Heart,” genetic conditions have a young girl aging too quickly and an old woman too slowly. In the title story, ideological differences hinder a young boy’s ability to make sense of afterimages and echoes floating in his brain. “Hopeful Monsters” pulls back the curtain on the world of designing babies. In “Places Where the Roads Don’t Go,” a lifelong friendship is strained when a heated debate over the nature of mind becomes more than talk. “Remember’d Kisses” explores science that offers to absolve emotional pain. In “Buried Hopes,” buried objects keep hope alive. While great writing, vivid scenarios, and thoughtful commentary outshine the scientific concepts, the stories will linger after the last page is turned.”—Publishers Weekly

Phoenix Pick is a publisher I have been aware of for awhile. For one each month they offer a free book if you signup. While not every book they had free was of interest to me, many were. So if you like SF and Fantasy it is quite worthwhile to signup. What is also nice is that they offer all their books in multiple formats with no Digital Rights Management (DRM) so you can easily read them on any device.

The only problem with Phoenix Pick is that there site seems to have been created in the 90’s and never updated format-wise. Thus making it look rather amateurish and wonky, but it is a real publishers site.

Mr. Flynn blogs at Mike Flynn’s Journal and The TOF Spot.

TJ Burdick is putting together an ebook and asks me the question “In your opinion, what are the ‘ten commandments’ that Catholic bloggers should keep in mind while pressing on in their digital mission?”

Well considering the name of my site a more humorous replay comes to me at first. In fact this is from a post written almost ten years ago on the blogging Ten Commandments.

• I am the LORD your God, you shall have no other blogs before me.
• You shall not blog the Name of the LORD your God in vain.
• Keep holy the blogosphere.
• Honor thy Father and Mother blogs (Mark Shea and Amy Welborn)
• You shall not kill thy users comments unless in self defense or to keep civil thy blog.
• You shall not commit blogdultery by spending more time on thy blog then thy spouse.
• You shall not steal thy neighbors links without given him credit.
• You shall not misrepresent thy fellow bloggers especially thou shall fully read their post before ranting.
• You shall not covet the quality of thy neighbors blog
• You shall not covet thy neighbor’s blog visits and page views.

Really though the ten commandments Catholic bloggers must keep in mind are of course the original ones and they also collapse into the same Catholic both/and of loving God and neighbor.

The different forms of media including new media all have their inherit temptations and difficulties when it comes to preaching and commenting on the faith. Specifically I will speak to though temptations of pundit bloggers such as myself.

For one is is quite easy to conflate a person with what they say and write and then end up attacking the person more than responding to what they say. I try to take up the example of G.K. Chesterton who could publicly take on the ideas of people who were his friends while remaining friends with them. He never compromised his opinion of their ideas, but his writing also never devolved into personal attacks. I am certain I have failed in this regard, but this is the example I try to adhere to.

The use of parody and sarcasm is also an area fraught with difficulties to keep from descending into callousness and mean-spiritness. You really have to evaluate what your trying to say and while doing parody. Parody can validly have an edge to, but that does not mean you have carte blanche permission to be uncharitable. Even being generally aware of this you can still fall into the problem by admiring what you see as the wit behind it and not its effects. If others take you to task for the way you have said something you really must give it some serious weight in evaluating if your really have transgressed. While I have not had to pull many posts over the last decade, I have pulled some upon reevaluating them. Pride can easily be a barrier in this regard as I well know.

Another inherit danger is our own bias in taking sides. Often we are only able to see the details of a story via the lens of a story from the media. Yet rarely knowing the people involved we jump to conclusions that may or may not be attached to the truth. Lots of Catholic red meat stories are not always as straight-forward as they appear. So a certain healthy skepticism needs to be developed in the way you respond to a story. This needs to ben taken in account since often there is a low certitude level involved. When a story does take such a turn you also need to post about it, especially when it goes against your initial diagnosis and the way you wanted a story to fit.

Blogging can be quite a humbling experience or just another way to feed your ego. Their are plenty of opportunities for that humbling experience if we are open to them as avenues of grace. To say the least bloggers are generally quite opinionated and not afraid to let loose those opinions on the internet public. We will concede that the Pope is only infallible within a narrow scope with specific conditions, but less willing to reduce the scope of our own infallibility when opining.

Like most things there is a spiritual battle involved and your really need to constantly verify your motives. For Catholic bloggers are we really motivated to spread the Good News and to help spread the faith along with giving encouragement to other Catholics? Or is it just an ego trip where you constantly check your site statistics to see if somebody is linking to you or approving of what your wrote. It is also easy to almost think the Catholic blogosphere exists to link to your own posts. To be annoyed when another blogger posts on a subject and gets linked to even though your own analysis was posted first. I know from experience how petty I can be and what imagined slights I can make in regards to whether a post gets linked to or not. It’s very funny to reflect on, but not so funny to look more closely at.

In other words blogging is prone to same problems of the spiritual life and require the same remedies. Prayer, fasting, examination of conscience, the sacramental life, spiritual reading and so forth. If prayer isn’t a serious part of your life than why are you involved in the Catholic blogosphere. This is a question I have certainly put to myself during these years as my prayer life has waxed and waned based on moods and the desire to rely on spiritual feelings instead of steadfastness in prayer despite not feeling spiritual “goodies.”

So do onto other bloggers as you would want them to do on to you. If you want to be linked by others, than be generous in linking to others and to give proper attributions to where you first noticed a story. If you want others not to jump to conclusions about what you write, make sure you are not doing the same.

Now hardly any of us have to be concerned that after we die a group is going to be looking over our blog posts in an investigation into our sanctity. Heroic punditry is currently not a category they look at. Though really if we worry that the first think Jesus says to us after we die is “..about your blog” or you ponder the years in purgatory based on blog entries – you just might need to reevaluate things. While we really don’t need to worry about that future investigation of our blog posts, really there are people investigating them right now and if some level of sanctity is not coming through – something is seriously wrong. This does not mean that a blog just say pious things and quote scripture and the Fathers of the Church, but it does mean that what is said is said with charity when a post takes a more serious turn. We know that they are Christians by their blogging – won’t be a slogan anytime soon, but it at least should be a possibility of one.

In the Navy there was a term we used for people who seemed to think they knew all the rules and would use technicalities to avoid work – Sea Lawyers.  Within Catholic circles there is a something similar though not an exact parallel.  There are many that seem to think they can pick up the code of Canon Law and just read a canon and correctly interpret it authoritatively.  This attitude is kind of Sola Canon Law and closely parallels Sola Scriptura.  Instead of Sea Lawyers perhaps the term of use is “Holy See Lawyers”.

This is an easy trap to fall into and that I have fallen into.  Thankfully we have bloggers like Canonist Edward N. Peters, who has a whole bunch of letters after his name, that can help us from falling into this mindset. Reading his blog over the years and following his appearances on Catholic Answers live it has certainly helped me to understand that there is so much more to it than simply reading the canons as there is much commentary and years of understanding in how they are to be interpreted.  Plus of course within the Canonist community there is also differing opinions.  There is a very interesting cross-section of theology and Church law involved that certainly catches my attention.  I remember Jimmy Akin’s discussion on his podcast on what actually constitutes heresy and the subject is very involved with many nuances, yet many seem to think it is very easy to class somebody a formal heretic.

I bring this up because I was thinking about the subject due to Ed Peters discussion on his blog about the canonical situation of Michael Vorbis and the Archdiocese of Detroit.  My own “Holy See Lawyer” attitude would have thought it was a slam dunk that the Archdiocese did not have a correct canonical case since RealCatholic.tv legal headquarters is not in this Archdiocese. Nice to be reminded that once again I am not a Canon Lawyer or even attempting to play one on my blog.

Reading the news about LA Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala who resigned and admitted fathering two children now teenagers I reflect on my own feelings.

Seeing that  he was a President of Pax Christi, presided over wacky liturgies in the dreadful L.A. Religious Conference, and had previously attacked Catholic bloggers it is sad the filter that I tried to apply to him.  I wanted to put him in a nice little box with the label “progressive Bishop” and  say “I’m not surprised.” So much easier to dispose of people that way.

Further reflection causes me to think of the mystery of sin.  Original sin affects all of us and that goes whether someone sides on the so-called progressive side or see themselves as being faithful to the Church.  There certainly have been those who have evangelized the faith with the truth of the faith who have fallen and lived double-lives like Fr. Corapi.

Certainly it is much more scandalous when a bishop succombs because the seeming level of hypocrisy  is much higher.  They “should have known better” we say as we live our own flawed lives not fulling living up to the Gospel we profess. So much easier to dismiss someone than to sincerely pray for theirs and your own salvation with some fear and trembling involved.

At the Adoration Chapel my wife and I go to there is a sign on the door that basically states that if you leave and are the last one there that you place a veil over the monstrance first before leaving.

This rather disturbs me on a couple of levels. For one it reminds me of putting a cloth over a parakeet cage to put the bird to sleep.

Plus “Redemptionis Sacramentum” is clear, in No. 138:

“Still, the Most Holy Sacrament, when exposed, must never be left unattended even for the briefest space of time. It should therefore be arranged that at least some of the faithful always be present at fixed times, even if they take alternating turns.”

Now I have never seen this chapel unattended and they do make an effort to ensure that someone is signed up 24 hours a day. But really there needs to be another procedure other than placing a veil over the monstrance and leaving. What would actually need to happen is either that somebody is present or that the host must be returned to the tabernacle.

Now this post is not just a rant on this subject, but a look a the silliness of my own interior life. Knowing that the veil procedure is problematic it is often in the back of my mind during adoration. What if everybody leaves leaving me an my wife alone? I would not put the veil on an leave and would be forced to stay until somebody showed up. Thinking these thoughts I realized just how ridiculous they are. Jesus complained that the Apostles would not stay awake one hour with him. Here I was complaining that sure I want to make a Holy Hour, but not a Holy Hour and some unspecified length of time until somebody showed up. As if adoring Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament would become an infringement on my time.

Today at adoration that situation did come about where we were the only ones left and I was towards the end of the third of the four mysteries of the Rosary. I was aware of every sound in the building straining to hear if somebody else would come into the adoration chapel. Finally a young woman came in and I was tempted to say “Tag you’re it” and exit the chapel. I managed to restrain myself and continue on in distracted prayer. Then she left and I was back to the same panic that we were the only ones in the chapel. Though two men later came in as we were finishing up our prayers. I’m just glad I can laugh at myself, though less glad I give myself so many opportunities to do so.

Last night was the premiere of the CatholicTV sitcom “Mass Confusion” staring Greg and Jennifer Willits along with Mac and Katherine Baron. As a long time fan of what was the Rosary Army podcast and now “The Catholics Next Door” on Sirius Radio and long with “Catholics in a Small Town” podcast I was quite aware of the comedic and other talents of these two couples.

So I watched their pilot episode last night which can also now be viewed at any time.

There was much to like about this show. For one the script writing was quite good and there was much to cause me to laugh out loud. It had the feel of a mixture of a reality show and a sitcom. The lack of laugh track and the video is what gave it the reality TV aspect as if you were following along with these two couples during an event of their lives. There was the Catholic theme of being open to life, but this is not a beat you to death with a Catholic them type of show. Though being that this is on CatholicTV that this is the audience for the show, but I think it open for a more general audience.

As a great believer in the importance of professional quality for Catholic media there was much that I liked about “Mass Confusion”. Though there is also much room for improvement towards professional quality. The reality show feel is mixed in that the audio and video work was not up to the quality we have come to expect. The scripting and the natural chemistry of the Willits and Baron families along with their kids is the strength of this show. This show is an attempt at creating a Catholic sitcom and to see if it could receive the support necessary to make it viable for CatholicTV to support. I certainly hope it does receive the attention and support it needs since I think it is quite worthwhile.

On this Thanksgiving Day I think back to an episode that still makes me laugh at myself. I think back to a specific Thanksgiving Day close to the start of my conversion to Christ. For the first time I was planning to actually start a meal with a prayer and I wanted something suitable for the occasion.

So I started skimming through the Bible looking for a prayer that I could memorize for the meal that night. Skimming is not the most efficient way, but it was all that I had considering my extreme ignorance of the Bible. By chance I came across a passage that seemed appropriate so I set myself to memorize it.

So that night at the start of dinner I recited that prayer to my family gathered around the table for a Thanksgiving meal.

It was only later that I came to find that prayer I memorized was actually the “Our Father”. When I say I was religiously ignorant I am not kidding. I had no idea of the significance of this prayer and it was totally unfamiliar to me. I just find it totally appropriate that the prayer Jesus taught us was the first prayer I learned.