Man tar gjerne til seg all den oppmuntring man kan finne, for det er jo ikke alltid jeg mottar ros for å drive denne bloggen. Rosen det her er tale om finner vi på The Catholic Herald, og de nevner og roser en presteblogger spesielt: Father Tim Finigan.
Avisa skriver at pave Benedikt nylig ba prestene blogge mer (som jeg nevnte HER), og fortsetter slik:
The secular media have interpreted this as a papal invitation to priests to «get blogging». We suspect they are right. Pope Benedict XVI is unlikely to spend much of his day online, but he is almost certainly aware that blogging has become a powerful phenomenon in Catholic circles. Many of the world’s most engaged Catholics visit blogs several times a week, to pick up information and rumours about the Church, and also to air their views. One might protest that some of the information is inaccurate, that some of the rumours are false and that some views aired are contrary to Church teaching – but the fact remains that blogs fill a vacuum created, in part, by ecclesiastical structures that have lost the knack of communicating with the laity.
It is no accident that among the most successful blogs are those run by individual priests, rather than dioceses. Not only do the faithful like to know what their parish priest is up to, but a seasoned and witty evangelist can build a cyber-parish that extends for thousands of miles. An outstanding example is our columnist Fr Tim Finigan of Blackfen in Kent, who spreads the Gospel alongside authoritative news of papal and other liturgical initiatives that are sometimes overlooked by the official channels.
His blog is called The Hermeneutic of Continuity, a phrase used by Pope Benedict XVI to emphasise the lack of rupture between the Church’s teaching before and after the Second Vatican Council; so well-known is Fr Tim’s blog that it has helped popularise the Pope’s thinking on this subject throughout the English-speaking world.
Many priest-bloggers are conservative in their liturgical preferences; but there is room in cyberspace for clerical writers who embody many different authentic Catholic approaches. The internet can empower priests who have felt their influence decline as vocations and congregations decline. Indeed, it has the ability to reverse these trends.
We should therefore welcome it for what it is: a gift to the Church.