"Benvenuto, Blogosfero": At the Vatican, a New Media Meet-Up

In a fitting tribute to a pontiff whose last major text prophetically spoke of the "rapid development" of the means of communication, the Holy See has announced plans for a first-of-its-kind encounter with the world of new media, to be held a day after the 1 May beatification of Pope John Paul II.

Arranged by the Pontifical Councils for Culture and Social Communications, the "Meeting with Bloggers" will take place at the Via della Conciliazione building where both dicasteries have their offices.

Intended to foster an exchange between bloggers and the global church's media chiefs, the gathering is being kept to a quota of 150 attendees who register with the Social Communications office, with panels of new-media folk and officials comprising the two halves of the session.

Here, the PCCS release announcing the event:

A meeting for bloggers will take place in Rome on the afternoon of Monday 2 May 2011.

The aim of the meeting, which is being organised by the Pontifical Councils for Culture and Social Communications, is to allow for a dialogue between bloggers and Church representatives, to listen to the experiences of those who are actively involved in this arena, and to achieve a greater understanding of the needs of that community. The meeting will also allow for a presentation of some of the initiatives to engage with new media practitioners being taken by the Church, both in Rome and at the local level.

In two panels, speakers will open up some of the key issues in order to set up a more general discussion open to all participants. The first panel will involve 5 bloggers – they will be chosen to represent different language groups and each will address a specific theme of general relevance. The second panel will draw on people involved in the Church’s communications outreach – they will speak of their experiences in working with new media and initiatives aimed at ensuring an effective engagement by the Church with bloggers.

Among those participating at the meeting will be Cardinal Ravasi of the Pontifical Council for Culture, Archbishop Celli of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications and Father Lombardi of the Vatican’s Press Office and Vatican Radio. An important dimension of the meeting is to allow an opportunity for informal exchange and contact between those attending with a view to opening further avenues of interaction.

The meeting is taking place on the day after the Beatification of Pope John Paul II in order to take advantage of the likely presence in Rome of many bloggers. The invitation is open to all, but bloggers who wish to attend need to apply by emailing blogmeet@pccs.it and sending a link to their blog. As space is limited to 150 seats and there is a desire to have a representation of the entire blogosphere, entrance passes and further details will be distributed with a view to the diversity of language and geography, typology of blogs (institutional or private, multivoice or personal), subjects of blogs, and timeliness of request.

Simultaneous translation will be provided for Italian, English, French, Polish and Spanish.

The venue is the Palazzo San Pio X, in via della Conciliazione, 5.

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To be sure, there are two ways of looking at the initiative....

Particularly given the approach to date of other prominent church entities -- namely, to publicly blast, then issue norms on a reality whose most successful ad intra practitioners have never been meaningfully engaged in substance -- one vantage would be right to see this announcement as a step in the right direction, be encouraged by the open hand and hope that the spirit of goodwill might trickle down to the venues where that's still needed (not as many as they used to be, sure, but still some out there). Considering the standard fare of Vatican culture, that something like this is coming from the top is all the more notable and edifying -- indeed, even astonishing.

At the same time, however, all of six months since a full-tilt, week-long Congress on the future of the "establishment" Catholic press -- one capped with a private papal audience -- another angle will have a hard time seeing the gulf of treatment between the two groups as anything but more evidence of a second-class status for the ecclesial works of communication that, these days, have arguably taken the lead when it comes to commanding interest and readership, not to mention driving the broader news-cycle. Add in the feelings of institutional disenfranchisement or suspicion (or worse) that motivated a considerable number of bloggers, podcasters, tweeps and the like to take to the plow to begin with, and the prospect of hearing the salaried types talk up "initiatives aimed at ensuring an effective engagement" is likely enough to send a chill down a good few spines.

Bottom line: sure, this is a start. But, as ever, the final analysis rests with these pages' many betters....

Ergo, as only new media can bring about, let a thousand judgments bloom.

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RatziWear: For Good... or Givhan

Earlier today, the Pope attended a commemoration of the 20th century martyrs sponsored by the Sant'Egidio movement at its Roman base, the Basilica of S. Bartolomeo all'Isola (the titular church of Cardinal Francis George of Chicago). The evening liturgy of the word also commemorated the 40th anniversary of Andrea Riccardi's first "School of Peace."

Yet while the pontiff spoke movingly, both of the movement and the ecumenical group who gave their lives out of witness to the faith...

In the defeat and humiliation of those who suffer because of the Gospel there is strength that the world does not know,” he said. “It is the strength of love, helpless and victorious even over the apparent defeat. It is the strength that defies and defeats death.”...

“Stopping at the six altars devoted to Christians who fell under the totalitarian violence of Communism, Nazism, killed in the Americas, Asia and Oceania, in Spain and Mexico, and in Africa, we ideally retrace the painful events of the past century. So many died as they fulfilled the Church’s evangelising mission. Their blood is mixed with that of indigenous Christians to whom the faith was communicated. Others, often living in a minority situation, were killed out of hatred for the faith. Lastly quite a few immolated themselves so as not abandon the needy, the poor, the faithful in their charge, fearing no danger. So many, they are!”

“Even the 21st century began in the sign of martyrdom. When Christians are yeast, light and salt of the earth, they too become the object of persecution as did Jesus. Like Him they are ‘signs of contradiction’. Fraternal co-existence, love, faith and choosing the weak and the poor, which marks the existence of the Christian community, often rouse violent loathing. How useful it is to look at the bright witness of those who came before us in the sign of a heroic faithfulness that can lead to martyrdom!”...

“The Word of God, love for the Church, preference for the poor, communicating the Gospel are the stars that guided you, witnessing under different skies the one and only message of Christ. I thank you for your apostolic work; I thank your for caring for those who come last and for searching peace, which sets your community apart.”

...when all's said and done, you'll probably just hear more about B16's having donned the white damask Easter mozzetta again, albeit seemingly without the green shoes that, according to the ecclesiastical fashion-crowd's more committed types, are supposed to go along with it.

In these days of visual media, the triumph of eye over ear (remember: "Video Killed the Radio Star") is hardly a surprise. To use another example, more folks seem to remember what Papa Ratzi wore at Austria's Mariazell shrine last September rather than what he actually said there (...for the record, the homily was much better). Or there's the whole saga -- seemingly apocryphal, but just as ensconced in the public mind -- over the Pope's (non-)Prada shoes.

With all this as backdrop and Touchdown DC less than eight days away, it's why the "traveling Vatican" might want to brush up on who Robin Givhan is and how, if B16 & Co. overplay the treasure chest card, her insights could end up overtaking, well, the message as next week's lasting impression.

As the fashion editor of the Washington Post, smart money would wager that, given the papal penchant for retro vestments, mega-mitres and the so-called "bling box" -- all visible from the pontificate's first day, yet ramped up notably since Msgr Guido Marini took over as Benedict's chief liturgist last October -- Givhan's Christmas is coming early this year... as in next week.

(Case in point: the world remembers less of what Condoleezza Rice said at a German army base in early 2005 than that the Secretary of State looked like something out of The Matrix.)

For better or worse, that was Givhan's doing. And in a word, no matter what you think (or don't) of the papal gustibus, just be ready.

As a primer from the national press -- i.e. a reminder that the RatziWear employed on these shores will impact the PopeTrip coverage and, ergo, public perception come showtime -- yesterday's LATimes offered a rather scholarly, heavily-linked take on the pontiff's "Dress Code":

When Benedict celebrates Mass in Yankee Stadium on April 20, he will be clothed in the raiment of his office -- a poncho-like vestment called a chasuble and the double-peaked bishop's cap known as a miter. Asking if the pope will be dressed up is like asking whether the pope's Catholic.

But the Catholic Church is a house with many rooms, and those rooms have different clothes hanging in the closets. To the delight of conservative Catholic bloggers, Benedict -- the pope who has ordered wider use of the Latin Mass of the Council of Trent -- has lately been donning elaborately embroidered vestments and miters in what is called the "Roman" style, in contrast with the neo-medieval "Gothic" style that made a comeback after the Second Vatican Council.

The Gothic style features short, squat miters and full, flowing chasubles. The Roman style, a product of the Baroque era, produced the super-tall miters beloved of anti-Catholic polemicists (the cartoonist Thomas Nast portrayed bishops as crocodiles, with the two points of their miters forming jaws) and chasubles reduced to the point that they resemble an embroidered sandwich board. This style of chasuble is known as the "fiddleback" because the front portion is shaped like a violin.

Fiddleback chasubles and skyscraper miters were the norm in the Roman Catholic Church through the early part of the 20th century. The Gothic style, which hearkened back to the 12th century, was viewed with suspicion in Rome partly because it was favored by priests of the Church of England who wanted to reestablish their church's Catholic heritage. (Ironically, some of those "Anglo-Catholic" clergymen were imprisoned in the 19th century for wearing what Protestant-minded Anglicans regarded as the "rags of popery.")

But the Gothic revival was also supported by some Roman Catholic scholars, the same scholars whose studies laid the groundwork for the liturgical reforms -- including Mass with the priest facing the congregation -- that followed the Second Vatican Council. In a 1931 book celebrating Gothic vestments, the influential Benedictine monk E.A. Roulin fulminated against the "horribly heavy" and "vulgar" fiddleback chasuble.

When I served Mass as an alter boy at in Pittsburgh in the early 1960s, the vestments were all Gothic, the fiddlebacks of the 1940s and 1950s having long been mothballed. I didn't realize, until I read Garry Wills' "Bare Ruined Choirs," that Gothic vestments were associated with liberal Catholicism.

After Vatican II, the pope caught up with Pittsburgh. When Pope Paul VI celebrated Mass in Yankee Stadium in 1965, he wore a flowing but not particularly elaborate Gothic chasuble and a mid-sized miter. His successors -- John Paul I and John Paul II -- also favored Gothic chasubles, though they occasionally donned skyscraper miters....

Assisted by Archbishop Piero Marini, the papal master of ceremonies he inherited from John Paul II, Benedict sported Gothic vestments and modest miters for a while. But last year, the pope replaced Marini with a prelate with the same last name, Msgr. Guido Marini. With the assistance of Marini No. 2, Benedict has returned to his liturgical roots, sporting massive miters, celebrating Mass in the Sistine Chapel with his back to the congregation and leading Good Friday services vested in a fiddleback chasuble. The pope's aides say that his choice of vestments is designed to demonstrate continuity with the church's past. Liberals are more inclined to see it as a slap at the spirit of Vatican II.

Even some Catholics might wonder why so much attention is paid to the pope's preferences in vestments. If hemlines can rise and fall, why not miters? Besides, special robes for priests and bishops are a tradition, not a matter of faith, and whether Gothic or Roman, ecclesiastical vestments originated in the everyday civilian dress of the Roman Empire. "The first Christians were waiting for the second coming of Christ, which they expected in their own lifetime and so made no attempt to formalize their religion," writes Janet Mayo in "A History of Ecclesiastical Dress." "They certainly had no desire to adapt or create specifically Christian clothing."

Get ready, folks -- the restored antique gold pastorale is looking to be on its way. And that's just the start.

PHOTOS: Reuters(1,2); AFP/Getty(3)

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Of Computers and Calendars

In advance of Tuesday night's Ecclesia Virtualis lovefest at St Joseph's University here in Pharaohville, Dan Joyce SJ -- SJU assistant VP of mission and mastermind behind the first-of-its-kind panel on blogs in the church -- plugs it in the pages of The Hawk (who, need anyone be reminded, will never die):

YouTube and Blogspot and Facebook - Oh my! No, Dorothy, you are not just in Kansas anymore. You are everywhere the Internet exists. The way we talk to each other and come to understand other people has changed dramatically in the last 10 years due to the newest media found on our home computers. We are both fascinated and terrified by the things that can and do happen in the new world that the Internet has created for us. Is this a "new frontier" that will change educational or religious organizations? I think that the Jesuit world has already witnessed vast changes via "the 'Net".

The spirituality of Saint Ignatius of Loyola is now more available to individuals than any other time in history. The plethora of websites that promote prayer methods based on the Spiritual Exercises has multiplied, and each portal of activity has exposed literally millions of people to the particulars of a spirituality that was only available via a personal encounter with a Jesuit who was trained in preaching Ignatian retreats. Now, in a very personal way, people can explore a relationship with God using the suggestions of Saint Ignatius online....

Transmitting from the U.S. is Creighton University's Online Ministries, which offers a whole smorgasbord of spiritual activities and reflections. Here you can actually engage in ways of doing the Spiritual Exercises online. This site has been very popular with faculty and staff on Hawk Hill. Also, Tom Rickards of the Theology Department is hosting a blog with his St. Joe's students called "Ignatian Spirituality: Then, Today, Tommorrow: Dedicated to students at Jesuit Universities" (jesuitstudents.blogspot.com). It is his hope that a wider conversation about Ignatian values and theological reflection can take place in the world of Jesuit education via the blogosphere. Rickards has been plased with the slow, but promising start of this blog as a tool for learning in his class, as well as others....

The latest portals of Internet communication are new frontiers for the Jesuits and the Church. They present opportunities for rapid and vast dissemination of information that can aid the spiritual life of many. They also present challenges and risks. This virtual world creates new personal experiences that may be no less real than face-to-face communication. These experiences can help the world of Jesuit education and Ignatian spirituality. This communication can also create painful mishaps.

Saint Joseph's as a community will explore more of this new Internet frontier in a first-of-its-kind event. The Catholic Intellectual Series will gather three of the world's most popular Catholic bloggers to discuss the use of these continuous, online conversations that engage about 30,000 individuals a week. The event on March 20 includes Amy Welborn, author of the blog "Open Book" (amywelborn.typepad.com); Rocco Palmo, author of the blog "Whispers in the Loggia" (whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com), and Grant Gallicho, Associate Editor, Commonweal and their blog (www.commonwealmagazine.org/blog). The event will be hosted by Philadelphia's own Bill McGarvey, a popular musician and the editor of BustedHalo.com. If you feel that you need to understand more about the new media then you may want to attend this event called "Ecclesia Virtualis: Catholics in the Blogosphere" on Tuesday, March 20, 2007 at 7:30 p.m. in the Chapel of Saint Joseph.

Looking forward to finding some of you yokels there -- and, for those at a distance, the event will be accessible online, most likely as an on-demand stream posted shortly after the fact.

...in the meantime, off to DC.

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Paradise, Mahony Style

Nine days and counting until US Catholicism's Western Super Bowl: the archdiocese of Los Angeles' annual Religious Education Conference.

As the REC -- held at an Anaheim arena and adjacent convention center -- isn't being put on by a bunch of lay-run parallel magisterium groups, but the Roman Catholic church in Los Angeles, the orthodoxy police are not happy at all.

But then again, when did they ever like an event they couldn't control? And as it's being put on by competent ecclesiastical authority, rest assured -- it's Catholic.... Wanna dissent from that?

Of course, the four-day festival will be presided over by Los Angeles' archbishop, Cardinal Roger Mahony, who holds an annual internet chat during it. There's been a lot of buzz about that; the questions are an absolute hoot.

Just in case he gets the vapors at seeing the words "Quo primum," however, I volunteer myself to be the Rog's stunt double for that portion of the festivities. I'd love to be there.

The REC is centered around two elements -- massive, John Paul-style liturgies in the arena, and a prolific roster of workshops in the convention center. Its Keynote Address will be given by Timothy Radcliffe, the well-regarded former Master-General of the Dominicans, who'll also give a workshop on something we could all use: "Healing Division in the Church." Lovely.

The list of presenters is impressive; here are some examples:

• John Allen -- remember him? -- is giving two talks on "What We've Learned So Far" on Benedict XVI's pontificate and "The Rise of the South in Global Catholicism"
  
• Tom Reese, S.J., returns to the well with a "Survivor's Guide for Thinking Catholics" and "The Election of Benedict XVI and What It Means for the Church";
  
• Conservative favorite Fr Robert Barron of Mundelein Seminary in Chicago's offering a seminar on the "Evangelical Essentials";
• This sounds interesting: "Benedict XV: the Papacy in a New Age" from a Thomas Weston, S.J.
  
• A workshop on "contemporary liturgical issues" will be given by USCCB Committee on the Liturgy chair Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie;
• Notre Dame's Scott Appleby will be presenting on Cardinal Avery Dulles' "Models of the Church";
• Tom Groome, of Boston College, will be offering "Our Best Hopes" for the future of ministry in the church;
• Jim Martin, S.J. on "Living With the Saints"
• An English Dominican, Bishop Malcolm McMahon of Nottingham, on practical ecumenism;
• Pro-life activist Sr Helen Prejean on "The Death of Innocents";
• the superb scholar of liturgy Dr Paul Ford, of St. John's in Camarillo, on "The Theology of the Chronicles of Narnia";
• The Jesuit president of Gonzaga University, Fr Robert Spitzer, will present on "Culture, Society and the Life Issues: Common Underpinnings of Pro-life Phil­osophy and Pro-life Encyclicals"
  
• Two workshops which St. Blog's should be mandated to attend: "Humility: A Teaching from the Catholic Tradition" and "Teaching Our Students [Bloggers] to be Respectful in a Very Rude World"
• and there are hundreds more....

Somebody tell me -- in a non-mouth-frothy-way, please -- what's so un-Catholic about this? I mean, it's not as if Roger their bishop was elected archbishop of Los Angeles -- and then elevated to the college of cardinals -- by a secret cabal of gays, liberals and journalists at a mountain ranch in Utah or anything.

As we all know -- and as the right loves reminding us, but only when it suits their interests -- the church isn't a democracy, but decisions are made according to the "governing Spirit" which belongs to those in orders and granted competent jurisdiction to do so, hence this conference. Period.

Despite all that, however, if anyone still feels the need to do a spleen-venting to the party responsible for Mahony's entrustment with the US' (by far) largest See and the red hat, this is the place you seek. Feel free to give him an earful.

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Pope-Pelosi: It's On

In news from another part of the Roman-American fray, it's been confirmed that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will meet Pope Benedict following Wednesday's General Audience as part of her Italian tour:

On Monday at noon in Rome, the Vatican’s Press Office confirmed to [Catholic News Agency] that Pope Benedict will be receiving U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi in an audience at noon on Wednesday.

Pelosi, a self-proclaimed "ardent Catholic" who has sparked significant criticism from fellow Catholics in the U.S. for her pro-abortion views, arrived in Italy on Sunday for an eight-day official visit....

Although numerous reports have been published either confirming or denying that Pope Benedict would receive Pelosi in an audience, the Holy See’s Press Office confirmed to CNA on Monday at noon Rome time, that the Holy Father will receive the U.S. representative on Wednesday at midday.

The press office made clear that the Pope will meet with Pelosi in his capacity as a head of state since the Speaker of the House is the third in line to lead the U.S., should the president and vice president be unable to do so....

Over this past weekend pro-life activists and bloggers launched verbal salvos against the Vatican because they believe that the Holy See plans to present Nancy Pelosi with an award.

This is definitely not true, the Vatican’s press office told CNA. The idea that Pelosi would be awarded by the Vatican most likely is the result of activists confusing the visit to the Vatican with the Speaker of the House being awarded by a group of Italian legislators for being the first Italian American to reach such a high rank in the U.S. government.

Following August comments on Meet the Press attempting to reconcile her faith with her pro-choice stance, the California Democrat was criticized by a number of Stateside bishops and invited to a "conversation" with her ordinary, Archbishop George Niederauer of San Francisco.

PHOTO: Reuters

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Signs of the Times

In yet another sign of the prominence of new media, the daily paper of the Italian bishops L'Avvenire has accused local bloggers of spreading "infamous slander" after one Italian website translated "Sex crimes and the Vatican" -- last year's controversial episode of the BBC's Panorama on sex abuse -- and made the result viral.

The Italian version of the documentary "now ranks as Google Video Italia's most popular item," Reuters reports.

Newspaper Avvenire, which is owned by the Italian Conference of Roman Catholic bishops, slammed the web version in a front-page editorial headlined "Infamous Slander Via Internet."

The BBC documentary examined what it described as a secret document written in 1962 that set out a procedure for dealing with child sexual abuse within the Church.

It imposed an oath of secrecy on the child victim, the priest and any witness, a policy the BBC documentary said was meant to protect the priest's reputation during the investigation but "can offer a blueprint for cover-up."

Avvenire called the documentary "a pot-pourri of affirmations and pseudo-testimony that were at the time publicly repudiated" for being false and misleading.

The Roman Catholic Church has been hit in several countries, including the United States and Ireland, by lawsuits and allegations of sex abuse by priests.

British bishops last year criticized the BBC, saying it should be "ashamed of the standard of the journalism used to create this unwarranted attack on Pope Benedict."

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Pulling the Plug

In light of recent political controversy involving Fr Michael Pfleger of St Sabina's in Chicago, within the hour the city's archbishop Cardinal Francis George released the following statement:

To put recent events in some perspective, I have asked Father Michael Pfleger, Pastor of St. Sabina’s Parish, to step back from his obligations there and take leave for a couple of weeks from his pastoral duties, effective today. Fr. Pfleger does not believe this to be the right step at this time. While respecting his disagreement, I have nevertheless asked him to use this opportunity to reflect on his recent statements and actions in the light of the Church’s regulations for all Catholic priests. I hope that this period will also be a time away from the public spotlight and for rest and attention to family concerns.

I hope also that the life of St. Sabina’s parish may continue in uninterrupted fashion. Fr. William Vanecko, Pastor of St. Kilian’s parish, will be temporary administrator of St. Sabina’s and will assure the full complement of ministerial services during this period. I ask the members of St. Sabina’s parish to cooperate with him and to keep him and Fr. Pfleger in their prayers. They are in mine.

After apologizing for the offense caused by his Trinity sermon (fullvideo) during Sunday's Mass at the parish, Pfleger launched into another sermon (audio) saying that if YouTube existed at the time of the crucifixion, it would've ignored the resurrection.

The Trib's Manya Brachear notes that the temporary removal came after the firebrand priest, long a beloved activist in the city's African-American community, was returned to the defensive after more of the first set of comments emerged in which he declared that "America is the greatest sin against God."

In a response yesterday, Pfleger said that in making the remark, he "inadvertently inserted the word ‘America’ in the wrong place and was not even aware of it until" conservative bloggers had pointed it out. He said he had intended to say that "racism is the greatest sin."

Ordained in 1975, Pfleger, 59, has served as pastor of St Sabina's since 1981.

SVILUPPO: He hasn't made any public comment since today's announcement, but noting that Pfleger "has never met a cardinal-archbishop of Chicago he didn't aggravate," this morning's Sun-Times saw the benched cleric talking exclusively about, among other things, his relations with the archdiocese with the paper's famed "God Girl," Cathleen Falsani:

"[George] and I have had conversations, and I won't go into the conversations; I'll only say that he has asked me to remove myself from Barack's public campaign -- from the group Catholics for Obama -- and that was before all of this," Pfleger told me as we sat alone in a conference room Monday in Sabina's rectory. "He said that, as a Catholic priest, I'm not allowed to publicly support a candidate. I said my understanding was that, as an individual, I can support anyone I want, but that I would never tell parishioners who to vote for. First of all, from my point of view, that insults the congregation. They make their own choice.

"While I disagreed with him, I told him that I did not want to create another distraction for him or for Barack," Pfleger said. "So I wrote a letter to Barack, telling him just that: that I did not want to create a distraction for him, that the cardinal has said no priest is allowed to have his name on a [campaign committee] and that this is a bishop's rule throughout the country. Now, I don't know because I haven't done all the research, but he told me there is no other priest in anybody's campaign listing of support around the country."...

How much longer, considering his rocky relationship with George and the fact that he's years and years past the archdiocese's official "term limit" as pastor of Sabina?

"Are you in jeopardy of being removed right now?" I asked.

Pfleger blanched and wearily rubbed his forehead.

"Because of the hierarchical nature of the archdiocese, I think you're always serving at the discretion of the cardinal," he said. "Within the last year, we talked about a plan for transition over a number of years, and I think we agree on a plan and seeing the transition for Sabina over the next several years. That's all I want to say about that, but obviously I serve at the discretion of the archbishop."

How had George reacted to the Trinity dust-up?

"I can say that he called me, and we had a conversation, and I agreed not to use any of the political candidates' names publicly between now and November, and that I would adhere to my staying off of the official roster of people supporting Ob . . . sena . . . Bar . . . " he stumbled, slamming his hands on the table in frustration as he searched for the proper way to describe the junior lawmaker from Chicago with the big ears who has a healthy lead over the former first lady in the Democratic race.

Then, it was my turn. "So you've known, um, the person whose name we can't mention, for, like, 20 years or so?" I stammered. "Jeez, it's like he's Voldemort in Harry Potter, the name we dare not speak."

It's a rare occasion when Pfleger and I find ourselves at a loss for words.

Pfleger's about as cowed as I've ever seen him. He's reeling, really, from what he admits is a difficult predicament of his own making. Over the weekend, he said that the days since his Trinity address had been the most difficult of his life, even more painful than when his foster son Jarvis was gunned down near St. Sabina on May 30, 1998....

The difference between that pain and this, he said, is that, essentially, he shot himself and his church. "I've spent my life trying to, No. 1, serve God, and to build up this faith community. I felt all of that was at risk. I felt that I don't want to hurt this church; I've done everything trying to make this church strong. I don't want to hurt this church. I don't want to hurt these people who are at their jobs or workplaces having to defend their pastor. That shouldn't be what they have to do. I did not want to hurt this church's reputation."

And after the announcement, it didn't take long before news of parishioner protests -- and a strategy-crafting parish council meeting -- took to the airwaves.

PHOTO: Al Podgorski/Chicago Sun-Times

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Wings

DISCLAIMER: If you're one of those people who'd get all kinds of batty about the most self-congratulatory piece I've ever written, then just spare yourself (and all of us) the anger and go read something else. Thank you.

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Cari fratelli e sorelle--

How did I get here? I'm still trying to figure it out.

Yesterday, at about 2PM, Whispers received its 100,000th Visitor since the counter's inception on 4 June. Of course, as the blog had already been up and running five months at the time, the real number already stands well in excess of 100K. This is somewhat akin to the birth of Jesus, which actually happened somewhere between 4 and 6 BC.

Squilla la tromba del Grande Giubileo!

No words are adequate to express my amazement at this milestone. But these two are a start: "Thank You."

If I thanked by name everyone who's been a part of making this experience the wonder and joy it's been to this point, the counter would be at 200K by the time I wrapped up. But there are certain groups and certain people without whose superhuman kindness toward and support of me, this work would never have existed to see this point.

My family and friends still have little clue what exactly a blog is but have been incredibly patient and understanding with me, and I am what I am because of the love and inspiration they've given me. In their life with each other -- which we'll celebrate a month from today on their Silver Wedding Anniversary -- my parents have been for my sister and me the model of good humor, of patient endurance and of unconditional love, both for each other and their children. To experience this gold standard of a relationship as the goal to seek out and live by in our own journeys remains a priceless experience and the choicest gift of my days.

The many religion journalists I've worked with through the years have long known me as a friend, source and sounding board. That I can now call them my colleagues should scare the bejesus out of all of us. May I one day live up to the example of integrity, balance and expertise they practice on the beat, in and out of season.

My dear clergy, both at home and beyond, for whom these have not been easy times and who have often been assailed on all sides. A priest once told me that he defined his priesthood as "bringing people from death to life -- you know, just getting someone over the bump, and then on to the next person to help them along." The selflessness so many of you show in this exercise of ministry is more of a gift now than ever before. May the affirmation you've earned always be present to sustain and encourage you. I can only pray I've done you and your common excellence justice in these pages. All thanks for your many gifts of kindness, friendship and advice. Please, for the love of the church, keep showing those insipid tribal chiefs what it truly means to be a priest among men.

Carissimi Romani, grazie mille per tutte le cose che voi avete affidati a me. Thanks for keeping me plugged in with the doings of the Mothership and putting up with me. Ci vediamo presto.

To Amy the Fair for consistently showering me with what has come to be known as the "Welborn Effect," I remain ever-grateful for its wonders and for the blessings of her friendship and encouragement. Advice to bloggers: When Amy links to you, the spotlight is on.

Sons and daughters of the Church, my beloved readers.... All of us don't always see eye to eye with each other, and some of you have seen fit to defame me both in this forum and elsewhere with insinuations against my character and person which are as vile and un-Christian as they are untrue. But every visit to these pages, every e.mail, every last abusive word thrown my way has been for me an affirmation of the value and quality of my work, the frustration with which the obstinate resist the truth -- and, of course, that no man is a prophet in his own country.

I came to the blogosphere with a scary suspicion that the notion of communio had gone out the window in many places, and that "Sentire cum Ecclesia" had become selectively applied by some to solely those cases where "Ecclesia thinks like me." Sadly, the more disconcerting moments of this experience have confirmed that suspicion, but at the same time I have been buoyed up and blessed by the witness, support and fidelity of others from around the world who live this faith in its richness and testify to it not with a 2X4, but with great love and a kindnes truly derived from the heart of Christ.

To that latter group, you have all the appreciation of this grateful heart. And to the former group, I gently suggest you look around your parish churches this coming Sunday morning. The people around you may be gay, they may be conservative, they may have green hair or look and dress differently than you. Whatever the case, and however much you may think of your own self, it doesn't mean that the others are any less Catholic than you. And they just might be closer to where you need to be. The politics of division and attack have no place in the life of the People of God, and as soon as the truth that we are a church of sinners is taken off the table by the modern equivalent of the Scribes and Pharisees, we're all in big trouble -- and no one should take any joy in a church of the sinless, because none of us would be able to take part in it, however loudly some of you may scream.

To my guardian angels -- those intrepid souls who've been so kind as to faithfully keep in touch and keep me going with donations, ledes, and generous doses of sanity, humor and moments of growth to this point of the ride. You know who you are, and you're the ones who have kept this enterprise going. May you have all the rewards you seek today and always. No words could express my appreciation for your goodness and example. You've been as much a part of this effort as the humble writer you've been so kind to help.

And two more -- first, to everyone whose e.mails I've either been late in replying to or haven't gotten back to, I ask forgiveness. The spirit is willing, but the writer is weak. Believe me, I always beat myself up for everything I'm not able to get to.

Lastly, my heart is full of affection and gratitude for the gift of Anthony Cardinal Bevilacqua, without whose presence I wouldn't have written a word or thought a thought about this faith in all its richness. In the mysterious design of Providence, I believe that God brought His Eminence into my life many years ago for a reason. And through the years, he has never ceased to be my teacher, my cheerleader, my protector, my mentor and my friend -- and his wise counsel has never steered me wrong. While the revelations of these last weeks will take their place in the record of history, it would be a tragic injustice for them to overshadow and nullify six decades of a priesthood and episcopacy which has brought about so much good in the lives of so many. The Cardinal has always believed in me more than I've believed in myself, and his confidence in me has been a life-changing and defining blessing, encouraging me to reach heights even I thought unattainable. Along with the priests of my childhood and adolescence who taught me the importance of being a "priest among men," I can never repay the goodness and support of my first teacher, first reader and beloved friend.

OK, I'm all thank you-ed out. So what now?

Well, not many blogs see 100,000 readers in their lifetimes, let alone in the space of four months. I don't usually feel accomplished, but this is an accomplishment.

Say what you will, but I've never approached this as an "anything goes" blog -- it's not a blog in the classical sense, really, as it has always been a work of rapid-turnover journalistic analysis and commentary because, well, I am a journalist and this just happens to be the new frontier of the craft, when handled as such. And I've always striven for precision, accuracy, and the best of expertise on the subject matter within the limits of my competence. It's not my judgment to determine whether I've succeeded at that, but the constant uptick in numbers (which now range between 1,800 and 2,000 visits a day during the workweek) has been encouragement enough to confirm that I haven't strayed from that course -- well, not much at least. I hope.

I think it's safe to say now that the vocation of the professional Vaticanologist has taken root in a new generation. And I'm it. Melchtry, too -- God love him. OK, that makes for two of us.

Stacy, we can handle this.

I'm immensely proud of all the ground covered over these 861 posts -- the future of the American hierarchy; all the continuing coverage of Rome; analysis which has consistently proven itself prescient and correct about two popes and their papacies; a commitment to intense coverage on stories which go beyond the constraints of daily journalism; important matters from off the beaten paths of the Catholic and secular presses; being the first to bring to light items as diverse as new liturgical texts, important speeches, statements and administrative actions and, as you know, the breaking of several stories: most prominently, the resignation of Msgr. Eugene Clark as rector of St. Patrick's Cathedral, the most recent ICEL drafts, the appointment of Stanislaw Dziwisz as archbishop of Krakow and my crowning glory, the scoop of scoops -- the historic appointment of Archbishop William Levada as prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith and the highest-ranking American in the history of the Holy See.

All in all, that's not a record to sneeze at. Unlike the others in this medium, I put my name and reputation on the line with all of this. And now, with this record on the books, I must make good on a promise to myself, because I've given my all to this work but cannot do so forever under the current operating conditions.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

What you've seen here every day is the "outside of the tapestry." Behind it lies 12-to-16-hour days six days a week which have held me captive to the desk and the phone, answering e.mails, doing research, reading, writing, tweaking, you name it.

All this has taken its toll -- at one point, I did check into the ER with a bout of exhaustion. I've tried to prolong the stay of execution as long as humanly possible, but it's come to the point that I have to stand by the professional nature and quality of this work, the effort I've put into it, and my demonstrated expertise at the beat. As much as I love all this -- and I could do the blog forever -- I need to take care of myself first of all.

You can only keep putting your life, security and well-being on hold for so long before it becomes clear that you can't keep hoping for something to come tomorrow -- that it has to be today, or else.

This is all a long way of saying that, with great sadness and effective immediately, the daily publication of Whispers is suspended.

Please believe me when I tell you that I wished that it would never have to come to this, but time and again I would ask for a boost, for ledes, for something -- anything -- to help me and the work along. And while I'm grateful beyond words for all the support I've gotten as a result of those requests, I need to handle the obligations which accumulate every day, obligations I've continued to procrastinate on because my love and devotion to this work have been so great. And I've finally realized that all this feed is too good to be given away for free; I know too many others in the biz who are a lot more comfortable and do a lot less. And they sure as hell would never do it on this kind of scale.

In sum, I need to respect my talent -- for once.

You don't need me to tell you that I love this beat and this business -- why else would I have studied it for four years, then devoted another year of my life to it full time and for no pay? If the conditions were right, I could do it forever and a day and never once tire of it. And if there are any media outlets out there eager enough to bring me aboard, get in touch. I have the audience, my record speaks for itself, and this blog is the best resume you will ever see in your life.

So the Fifth Floor at the USCCB and the Philadelphia Chancery -- where I'm read four times a day, on average -- are getting a break. For now.

But don't worry, I'm not going away forever. Or much at all, really. You can still find me in the pages of The Tablet, and anywhere else courageous enough to take me on. Do support and read The World's Best Catholic Paper, which has long been a lodestar for me and so many others. To contribute, however insignificantly, to its pages is the greatest honor I could've ever imagined, and I'm so humbled and thrilled to be a part of its extended family which spans the globe.

I will be resurfacing here from time to time and posting whatever breaking stories I can get my hands on -- you know I have a tendency to bump into those at a good clip. So keep an eye here.

OK, I've said enough. To one and all, please keep in touch -- I'll have more time for my e.mails now, so I promise replies.

And to those of you, my new friends, who've been mind-blowingly kind, generous and true Christians to this fellow traveller, yours is a place in my grateful thoughts, my prayers, and in my heart.

May God's love be with you, and may he be as good to you as you have been to me. Always.

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The Trail of Tears

More from Chicago -- press conference on the abuse audit:

A pensive Cardinal Francis George did not contest the findings Monday and said he would see to it that reforms are made....

Remember, this is the vice-president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and de facto leader of the American hierarchy -- who's been ensconced in his archdiocese for nine years -- talking.

Four years after the Conference he'll soon head was supposed to "see to it that reforms are made," the second-largest See has, by its own admission, not implemented them.

If Roger Mahony gave the statement George had to make earlier today, the bloggers would be going wild right now with visions of resignation dancing in their heads.... But, for some strange reason, nary a peep out there.

Hmm?

On Monday the archdiocese posted on its Web site a list of 55 diocesan priests credibly accused of sexually abusing minors—a step long sought by victims' advocates. Only the names of priests accused posthumously remain classified, as they did not have a chance to respond to the allegations against them.

In reviewing McCormack's case, the firm Defenbaugh and Associates uncovered allegations dating to his seminary days. The former vice rector of Niles College told auditors about three allegations of sexual misconduct involving two adults and a minor while McCormack was there, though the auditors found no record of it in his files.

The firm faulted church leaders for their lack of action on a misconduct allegation lodged against McCormack in 2003, saying archdiocese employees violated the Illinois Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act by not investigating or reporting the allegation, made by the alleged victim's grandmother.

Defenbaugh concluded that the archdiocese had failed to comply with policies for protecting children drafted by U.S. bishops nearly four years ago, citing its failure to review seminary records before ordaining priests and the lack of training for parochial school staffers on what to do when children claim they have been abused.

It was from this session that George went to Mundelein to announce the appointment of the new rector, Fr Dennis Lyle. Apparently, in advance of the press conference downtown, the seminarians were asked to pray for the cardinal.

Word from St Mary of the Lake was that George appeared quite weary -- the words "beat up" were used -- during his 15-minute conference with the seminary community.

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Goodbye, Good Bloggers?

In a first, one of the most prominent American seminaries -- Mount St. Mary's in Emmitsburg, Md. -- has banned its students from blogging. As if you needed me to tell you the levels of skittishness and hissy-fits any form of media or independent commentary causes in the institutional mindset of this business, don't be surprised if it's the first of many.

Of course, there are the pros for the ban, such as the dangers of one's full investment in seminary life; the aversion of dioceses to having private statements from those in their formation coming back to haunt; and the nature of how things posted on blogs can often be misinterpreted or taken out of context. (And advancing too far with new technology isn't the easiest thing when you've got committed Victorians in the house....)

But at the same time, there are the "drawbacks" to sems blogging on their own... A blog might just be a good tool in which a sem can practice preaching with a broad audience. A readership and their feedback would give him the outlet and expose him from behind those forbidding semgates to the world in which he will minister. And the presence of sems on their own blogs -- and I dare you that dioceses will set up puppet blogs just to exploit this effect -- gives the Catholic people hope. It gives the faithful contact with the next generation of priesthood and imbues them with a good feeling about the life of the church. Look at how hopped up CWR got the other day about numbers. Not quality, not holiness -- numbers.

Where does everyone stand on sems and blogs? Let's mash it up.

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150 Years in Print... To a Quarter-Million Hits -- In Six Months, The Vatican's Media Revolution

In the long arc of things, odds are that the Vatican's first half of 2011 will be especially recalled as a time of media milestones, ones both celebrating achievements past and -- at long last -- opening up the doors and platforms for Church Central's further penetration into a drastically-altered communications landscape.

While the new push reached its climax this week with the PopeTweet seen 'round the world and the launch of the News.va portal, the Curial PressFest actually began in February with an unusually-prominent celebration for the 80th anniversary of Pope Pius XI's launch of Vatican Radio, then kicked into high gear with May's Beatification of the church's "Great Communicator" and the following day's game-changing Meeting for Bloggers sponsored by two Curial dicasteries. (To boot, let's not forget last month's well-acclaimed Vatican broadcast of NBC's Today Show, nor the move that heralded it all: the Pope's Christmas Eve delivery of BBC Radio's traditional Thought for the Day.)

Even if the Holy See remains loath to dispense with the widely-panned parchment wallpaper on its main website -- which recently saw its first meaningful updating since the Great Jubilee in 2000 -- the last six months have still marked an astonishing turn of tack; among the many moves, the central Vatican.va page quietly rolled out an optimized version for mobile devices earlier this week, as the news platform racked up just over 250,000 hits on its first day live. Yet above all, though the various observances took pains to celebrate analog and digital communication efforts alike, in a unique way, the six-month shift has made for new media's "coming-out party" at the Home Office, especially as -- beyond dominating the wider storyline -- the Vatican's leaps forward have put an unprecedented degree of pressure on the wider church's sprawling "official" apparatus to follow suit.

Bottom line: much as Benedict XVI has dedicated his last three messages for the church's World Communications Day to the challenges and opportunities of a social-network age, in terms of global circulation and simple water-cooler grist, the visual of the Pope "Aah"ing at an iPad immediately eclipsed not just his media texts, but almost the entirety of his public magisterium, becoming part of the vox-pop narrative of this pontificate (and, frankly, providing much happier B-roll than the last well-trafficked Vatican curiosity: the topless gyrating acrobats whose performance was foisted upon the Fluffy One during a December General Audience).

Clearly, the effort has served to send the outside world a new, different message. The lesson for B16's own, however, is arguably even more powerful... and leave it to a (non-papal) tweet to sum it up best:

"To all church workers who refuse to learn how to use new media: the pope a)has an ipad b)launched a website from it c)tweeted about it."

To be sure, the climb isn't as steep as it was not all that long ago. As ever, though, the work continues.

* * *

All that said, the advances of recent months had to begin somewhere. And accordingly -- it being the Vatican and all -- the roots of the latest innovations to the Curia's media engagement run especially deep and lasting.

So it was fitting that a significant new moment for church media at its highest levels wrapped up this morning with a special Mass in the Pauline Chapel of the Apostolic Palace to celebrate today's 150th anniversary of the Vatican daily L'Osservatore Romano, which likewise rolled out a new multi-lingual website over recent months.

With the original house organ's staff and contributors on-hand, the liturgy was celebrated by the "Vice-Pope" -- Benedict's Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone -- who termed the paper's "unique" service as one of presenting "the world from the Holy See's viewpoint," that "whoever reads it, anywhere in the world, can find in it the viewpoint of the Pope and of the Apostolic See in every country, in every region, even the most remote."

Yet in his own congratulatory message -- addressed to L'Osservatore's editor, Gian Maria Vian -- the Pope called his daily read "a service to truth and justice."

In tribute to the sesquicentennial of the "Papal Paper" -- and with the thought that its qualities are ones to which every work of ecclesial communication, regardless of vantage or medium, should seek to aspire -- here's B16's full message for his observer's big birthday:

One hundred and fifty years are truly a considerable length of time for a daily newspaper, a long and important journey rich in joys, difficulties, hard work, satisfaction and grace. This important anniversary of L’Osservatore Romano — whose first issue came out on 1 July 1861 — is therefore first and foremost a cause of thanksgiving to God pro universis beneficiis suis: in other words for all that his Providence has disposed in this past century and a half, during which the world has changed profoundly, and for what it disposes today, with the ever more rapid transformations, especially in the communications and information sector.
At the same time, this happy event also affords an opportunity to reflect on the history and on the role of this daily, commonly known as “the Pope’s newspaper”. As Pius XI, of venerable memory, said in 1936, exactly 75 years ago — we are therefore invited to “take a look at the ground we have covered and another at the ground that has yet to be covered”, stressing above all the uniqueness and responsibility of a daily which has made known the magisterium of the popes for a century and a half and is one of the privileged instruments at the service of the Holy See and of the Church.
L’Osservatore Romano came into being in a context both challenging and decisive for the papacy, with the awareness and determination to defend and sustain the principles of the Apostolic See, which seemed to be threatened by hostile forces.
Founded as a private initiative with the support of the Papal Government, this evening paper claimed to be “religious and political”, setting itself the goal of upholding the principle of justice in the conviction, based on the word of Christ, that evil will not have the last word.
This objective and conviction were expressed by two famous Latin mottos — the first taken from Roman law and the second from the Gospel text — which have featured in the masthead since 1862: Unicuique suum [to each his own] and, especially, Non praevalebunt [they (the gates of hell) shall not prevail] (cf. Mt 16:18).
In 1870, the end of the temporal power — perceived as a providential measure despite the abuse and unjust acts to which the papacy was subjected — neither upset L’Osservatore Romano nor depreciated its presence and role. On the contrary, about 15 years later the Holy See decided to acquire ownership of it. With time, the direct control of the newspaper by the papal authority increased its prestige and authority. They were subsequently to develop further, because of its line of impartiality and courage in particular, staunchly maintained in the face of the tragedies and horrors that scarred the first half of the 20th century, “faithful as an international and supernational institution”, Cardinal Gasparri wrote in 1922.
Tragic events ensued: the First World War, which devastated and changed the face of Europe; the affirmation of forms of totalitarianism with harmful ideologies that denied the truth and oppressed human beings; finally, the horrors of the Shoah and of the Second World War. In those terrible years and later during the period of the Cold War and of the persecution of Christians perpetrated by the Communist regimes in many countries, despite its straitened means and shortage of personnel, the Holy See’s newspaper was able to inform with honesty and freedom, supporting the courageous work of Benedict XV, Pius XI and Pius XII in defence of truth and justice, the only foundation of peace.
Thus, L’Ossservatore Romano succeeded in emerging from the Second World War with its head held high, as authoritative lay voices immediately recognized. So also, in 1961, did Cardinal Montini, who was to become Pope two years later with the name of Paul VI: “It was like what happens when all the lights in a room are switched off and only one is left one: everyone’s gaze is directed to the one left on; and fortunately this was the light of the Vatican, the calm bright light fed by the apostolic light of Peter. L’Osservatore Romano then stood for what essentially it has always been: a guiding beacon”.
In the second half of the 20th century the paper began to circulate throughout the world by means of a series of periodical editions in various languages, no longer printed only in the Vatican: actually eight, including, since 2008, also the version in Malayalam published in India, the first to be printed entirely in non-Latin characters. Since that year, in a difficult season for the traditional media, the distribution has been supported by co-publishing with other newspapers in Spain, in Italy and in Portugual, and now also by means of an increasingly effective presence on the internet.
A “singolarissimo” (most unusual) newspaper because of its unique features, L’Osservatore Romano in the past century and a half, has first and foremost maintained its service to the truth and to Catholic communion on the part of the See of the Successor of Peter. Accordingly the daily published the Pontiff’s interventions regularly, followed two Councils celebrated at the Vatican and the many Synodal Assemblies, an expression of the vitality and wealth of the Church’s gifts. Besides, it never forgot to highlight the presence, work and situation of the Catholic communities across the world that sometimes live in dramatic conditions.
In our day — frequently marked by the lack of reference points and the removal of God from the horizon of many societies, even of those with an ancient Christian tradition — the Holy See’s daily stands as a “paper of ideas”, an organ of formation and not only of information. It must therefore be able to stick faithfully to the task it has carried out in this past century and a half, paying attention in addition to the Christian East, to the irreversible ecumenical commitment of the different Churches and Ecclesial Communities, to the constant quest for friendship and collaboration with Judaism and with the other religions, to discussion and to cultural exchanges, to the voice of women and to bioethical topics that give rise to questions crucial to us all.
By pursuing its open policy towards new signatures, and an increasing number of contributors — and highlighting the internet dimension and breadth of readership, present since the daily newspaper’s very beginning, after 150 years of a history of which it may well be proud, L’Osservatore Romano knows how to express the Holy See’s cordial friendship for the humanity of our time, in defence of the human person created in the image and likeness of God and redeemed by Christ.
For all these reasons I wish to address my grateful thoughts to all those have worked on the newspaper of the Holy See from 1861 to this day: to the Director, to the editorial staff and all the personnel. To you, the Editor-in-Chief, and to all who cooperate today in this exciting, demanding and praiseworthy service to truth and justice, as well as to the benefactors and supporters, I assure my constant spiritual closeness and warmly impart a special Apostolic Blessing.
From the Vatican, 24 June 2011

BENEDICTUS PP. XVI

PHOTOS: L'Osservatore Romano

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