Apologies and an Update

I have to apologize for my absence from this space of late. I have so many other projects afoot... but I honestly think it's all part of God's plan for me and the ways I am privileged to serve the Church.

A few months ago, I participated in an abbreviated version of the Siena Institute's "Called and Gifted" process. Unsurprisingly, my top charisms include music, writing and teaching. However, it has been in the discernment it has become clear there is a reason that writing (and teaching) projects seem to be finding me. God wants me to write for the good of the church, which is the purpose, of course, of having been given a charism. All of this is not about me, or about pointless busyness but about the action of the Holy Spirit.

If you find my lack of blogging disturbing, here is where else to find me... all evidence that God has a purpose for me.

• My column. You may know that since the first of the year, I have had the privilege of serving as the regular catechetical columnist for Ministry & Liturgy magazine. I certainly did not seek this. The editor came to me. In the most recently published issue, I co-wrote an article on technology for children's faith formation, with Dan Gonzalez, a fellow M&L author and Catholic app developer. (see below)
• Mass booklet. Picked up another project just this week: a booklet on the Mass for children, also from LTP. Again, they called me.
• Blog contribution. Ongoing: my work as a partner blogger on Loyola Press's DRE Connect migrated over to Joe Paprocki's "Catechists' Journey" blog, which has now become an group project.
• More blog contribution. I also continue to contribute occasionally to Sister Caroline Cerveny's group blog, "Catechesis 2.0"
• (Another possible book project. In the proposal stage, it's been lurking for months... more later, if it comes to fruition.)

Other projects that have "found" me recently:

• Beta testing. I have, over the past 6 months or so, been beta-testing and assisting with liturgical definitions for the marvelous new Catholic Words & Games, recently released by Dan Gonzalez of Agnus, LLC. That spawned the additional M&L article mentioned above, which in turn, led to
• Pinterest boards.  I have created and curated considerable content (how's that for alliteration?) for a new group of liturgical catechesis boards. One on resources for teaching the Mass to children (co-curated by Dan Gonzalez to accompany the article we co-wrote) and several on liturgical seasons. These boards and their pins seem to have generated quite a bit of interest. 
• A webinar. I am preparing for an August webinar for Liturgy Training Publications on getting families to Mass. The webinar coordinator came to me with this suggestion.  Again, not my idea.
• Website assistance. I am now occasionally assisting with the  21st Century Catholic Evangelization website, a project of the NCCL Evangelization Committee, finding and posting content.
• Website management. I have updated and continue to expand my personal website: The Liturgical Catechist to interface with the new Pinterest boards and to keep content up to date for seasons, symbols, sacraments and other topics.
• Observing: lurking  and watching the latest session of Digital Disciple Boot Camp - occasionally participating, as I observe what participants are learning. 

Ongoing:

• Social networking.  my personal Facebook and Google+ pages, along with The Liturgical Catechist and pages for my office and the diocese. There may be a new page on its way for another organization I am involved with. Stay tuned. 
• Semi-work-related presentations. one for catechists in November on Advent, one in February for the Chicago Catechetical Conference, some local deanery presentations for leaders.
• My Real Job. And, of course, full-time work for the Diocese of Joliet Religious Education Office - a privilege that certainly keeps me occupied!
• Volunteering at the parish.  Teaching Confirmation and helping with music and liturgy ministries... always.

I'm sure there is more I am forgetting. The only thing I have been sitting back on a bit of late is facilitating online classes for University of Dayton VLCFF, from which I am taking a short hiatus due to low enrollment in my section this cycle. That, too, was not my doing, but I look at it as clearing space for other priorities. 

Yes, I am busy. Yes, it's good. So is God. All the time. 

New Encyclical on Faith Debuts New Look, Social Networking Links

Today, the Vatican released Lumen Fidei, the joint encyclical on faith which Pope Benedict drafted and Pope Francis completed - and along with it a new look:

This is the first major document to appear complete with PDF download and social networking buttons, signaling a willingness on the part of the Vatican to make documents more accessible. The much-maligned parchment is now a background, while the text appears on a lighter ivory. An improved, clearer font also enhances readability.

This popup when you go to the main Vatican webpage invites you to "leaf through" the document (in booklet format) or download the PDF.

Good for them! The change is very welcome and will make the teachings of the Magisterium more accessible and easier to share.

And, bonus!! There is also a separate companion site just posted by Jared Dees (Ave Maria Press) for the encyclical http://lumenfidei.com/ that includes study guide and outline.

Finding an Authentic Catholic Voice on Social Media

(Apologies for the long hiatus on this blog - life is busy and complicated, and other projects have drained my energy.)  This post is a bit off-topic, but relevant, because it is about blogging and other forms of social media.

The new report Catholics' Use of New Media from CARA has some revealing news about the perception of Catholics about social networking.  It is not good news. Most Catholics use social media, but few use it to read about or share Catholic faith.  Over on his Patheos blog, Deacon Greg Kandra nicely summarizes three areas of concern expressed by respondents that seem to keep them from embracing this new way of learning and communicating about faith:

"The top three concerns cited by respondents for the Church’s presence online were the lack of a system for the Church to validate sites and content as authentically Catholic (45 percent), the lack of civil tone in conversations happening on the internet (43 percent), and the reluctance by Catholic Church leaders to use the Internet (42 percent)."

I would agree that while new media presents a wonderful opportunity to share Catholic faith, these are major concerns.  My personal observation is that the majority of Catholic engaging actively in using social media are out of touch with the needs, interests and outlooks of the average American Catholic in the average parish. What is out there is uninteresting, or even hostile to someone who is not particularly interested in the Latin Mass, who thinks his or her parish priest celebrates the liturgy just fine, who actually likes (and sings) popular modern American church music, who does not home-school his/her children and who does not regard the dominant American culture as particularly evil. Overwhelmingly, those who have much to criticize about the Church have embraced social media as a way to have a "bully pulpit" for their particular agenda. Sadly, some of the most popular bloggers are also some of the most uncharitable toward Catholics who are not like them.

I know I am stepping out on a limb and taking a risk here, but perhaps more Catholics would be comfortable using social media to explore and share faith if the tone of what is out there were more inviting, charitable and felt like the familiar voice of the Church of their own personal experience. The issue is finding an authentic Catholic voice that re-evangelizes Catholics instead of criticizes them for not being good enough Catholics. 

Yes, there certainly needs to be validation of whether a site providing information about the Church is authentically and reliably Catholic.  Yes, the tone of all communication about the faith needs to be civil in tone. Yes, the leadership of the Church needs to step up to use this new forum for communicating - and not in a top-down manner, but in one that engages and accepts the concerns of the average Catholic adult. We need a kinder, gentler Catholic internet that invites and engages people with charity.

The Church, it seems, has a long way to go. Yet this week, when the Bishops gather, the only related issue on their agenda - after the presentation of the above-mentioned report - is to talk about how fast they can shut down theologians on the internet who challenge Church teaching. That is a top-down response to the first concern from the survey, which ignores the fact that the internet is a forum for free speech, communication and interaction and not subject to that kind of policing.  The concern from the CARA study is about "validation" of sites, not condemnation. We have already seen that the latter approach does not work, since Michael Voris of The Vortex continues to post extremist apologetics videos that are widely shared by more "conservative" Catholics - even after being publicly censured by the Archdiocese of Detroit.

A more appropriate response would be for the official Church to find and affirm the voices of qualified, approved bloggers, video producers and other social networkers who fairly present the Catholic faith from its center. What about permitting, training and supporting people in  diocesan offices to use social media well?  A survey of diocesan personnel a while back (can't lay my hands on it, but I recall that this desire was communicated to the USCCB)  indicated they actually want the bishops to provide this kind of help. The official voice of the Church is largely missing from the world of social media, with the exception of a few blogging bishops and priests and a few forward-thinking dioceses. Most diocesan personnel, frankly, try to stay a bit "under the radar" because there is no official guidance or affirmation for their use of social media - and some degree of risk.

Lastly and this is just my personal opinion, sometimes Catholic content provided through social media may not be particularly attractive to the average Catholic, but is preachy and critical in tone.  It's no wonder the average Catholic is reluctant to engage.  Where is the content that relates the faith of average people to everyday life and engages real life issues in a healthy way? It's out there, but in my experience these are mostly not bloggers who get national recognition, who publish books about social media, who flock to social media conferences or get invited to meet with the bishops.  What the USCCB needs is a blogroll that includes all the voices of the Church, not just the loudest.

What is "Authenticity of Life"?

Today was the 45th annual World Communication Day in the Church, and as usual, there was a papal statement attached to the event. This year's title is  "Truth, Proclamation and Authenticity of Life in the Digital Age".  The phrase "authenticity of life" particularly jumped out at me, because I have been reflecting recently on what that means in point 8 in the Vatican's 1993 "Guide for Catechists". Here it is:

8. Coherence and authenticity of life. The work of catechists involves their whole being. Before they preach the word, they must make it their own and live by it . "The world (...) needs evangelizers who speak of a God that they know and who is familiar to them, as if they saw the Invisible".  What catechists teach should not be a purely human science nor the sum of their personal opinions but the Church's faith, which is the same throughout the world, which they themselves live and whose witnesses they are.

Hence the need for coherence and authenticity of life. Before doing the catechesis one must first of all be a catechist. The truth of their lives confirms their message. It would be sad if they did not "practice what they preached" and spoke about a God of whom they had theoretical knowledge but with whom they had no contact. They should apply to themselves the words of St. Mark concerning the vocation of the apostles: "He appointed twelve, to be his companions and to be sent out to preach" (Mk 3:14-15).

Authenticity of life means a life of prayer, experience of God and fidelity to the action of the Holy Spirit. It implies a certain intensity and an internal and external orderliness, adapted to the various personal and family situations of each. It might be objected that catechists, being members of the laity, cannot have a structured spiritual life like that of religious and that therefore they must content themselves with something less. But in every life situation, whether one is engaged in secular work or in the ministry, it is possible for everyone, priest, religious or lay person, to attain a high degree of communion with God and an ordered rhythm of prayer, including the finding of times of silence for entering more deeply into the contemplation of God. The more intense and real one's spiritual life is, the more convincing and efficacious will one's witness and activity be....

Compare what Pope Benedict says today of the online persona:

In the digital age too, everyone is confronted by the need for authenticity and reflection. Besides, the dynamic inherent in the social networks demonstrates that a person is always involved in what he or she communicates. When people exchange information, they are already sharing themselves, their view of the world, their hopes, their ideals. It follows that there exists a Christian way of being present in the digital world: this takes the form of a communication which is honest and open, responsible and respectful of others. To proclaim the Gospel through the new media means not only to insert expressly religious content into different media platforms, but also to witness consistently, in one’s own digital profile and in the way one communicates choices, preferences and judgements that are fully consistent with the Gospel, even when it is not spoken of specifically. Furthermore, it is also true in the digital world that a message cannot be proclaimed without a consistent witness on the part of the one who proclaims it. In these new circumstances and with these new forms of expression, Christian are once again called to offer a response to anyone who asks for a reason for the hope that is within them (cf. 1 Pet 3:15).

So, what is "authenticity of life?"  It means that what you see is what you get.  A true Christian witness, whether acting as a catechist or interacting online preaches the Gospel at all times because he or she lives it. In the words at the Ordination Rite of a priest or deacon being presented with the Book of the Gospels., a catechist is asked to "Believe what you read, teach what you believe, and practice what you teach."  At all times.

A catechist - or any true Christian - should not have a separate church life and another public life.  How we conduct ourselves every day, whether online, in the classroom, in the workplace or other public forum should be of one piece and should always reflect the teachings of Christ and his Church.  Even when dealing with  issues about which we may personally struggle with accepting Church teaching, we must at all times present a coherent picture of that teaching, and not our own opinion. That is what being "authentic" means.  And it's not always easy.  When Christians speak, we represent Christ and his Church - in a world that needs to hear the authentic voice and not just another personal opinion. St. Paul puts it well to the Corinthians:

We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the things freely given us by God. And we speak about them not with words taught by human wisdom, but with words taught by the Spirit, describing spiritual realities in spiritual terms. (1 Cor. 2:12-13)

This is our call - to be effective witnesses - and we are able to do that because, as St. Paul puts it in verse 16, we "have the mind of Christ." Therefore, whenever speaking in public, whether online, or as a catechist, we put our authentic Christ-filled voice at the service of Christ and his Church.