What is the deal with Catholic blogs

It was good today to see the report from the USCCB on media relations including Catholic websites, blogs, even facebook. I ventured into blogging soon after my ordination and have loved doing so ever since. I've explained before that I'm not too hung up about knowing how many people go to my blog or not. This is more an exercise of faith and love; it helps me on my own spiritual journey. Many of my own reflections here help to fulfill my commitment to journaling. And I have been very happy to use this site to capture my homilies which I hope to keep in some format for years to come.

With the explosion of so many Catholic blogs in recent years, the Bishops have issued some suggestions which make sense. Here is a brief paragraph from the Bishops:

Personal sites of church personnel should also reflect Catholic values. Businesses are cautioning their employees that, while employees have a right to privacy and confidentiality regarding what their employers know about them, an employee’s use of social networking—because of its very nature—means he or she relinquishes some privacy and could be construed as representing the company’s ethics and values. Likewise, church personnel should be encouraged to understand that they are witnessing to the faith through all of their social networking, whether “public” or “private.”

Many employers and church organizations ask their personnel to consider including a disclaimer on their personal sites, especially if employees/church personnel are highly visible in the community and/or post material related to church work/ministry on their personal sites. One example: “The views expressed on this site are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.”

I have two goals as they apply to the paragraphs by the Bishop posted above. First, I would never, as a Catholic Deacon, willfully engage in posting anything that contradicts the teachings of the Church. Second, I never would attempt to portray my opinion as that of the Archdiocese, parish or the Church universal.

And one more comment. I have long desired that through the use of comments we could have diaologues on this site. Unfortunately, due to some spam posters and others, I have turned on comment moderation and am currently not posting any comments. If anyone who sincerely wants to dialoguw with me about any post you can contact me at abitadeacon@yahoo.com.

Blog on!