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Dear friends,
It is fascinating that the discussions and commentaries on Catholica
Australia seem to be the catalyst for discussions on other Catholic
discussion forums both within Australia and in other places. The past
week has been particularly rich in the quality of discussion on both the
public and members' forums. I would urge our readers who only receive
this digest on Saturdays to check out what is also happening on our forums.
The members' forum is displayed in the same place and chronologically
interspersed with the public forum but members need to log in to participate
in the discussions that go on there.
I would like to take the opportunity to refute some allegations that
have been voiced on the CathNews discussion forum concerning myself
and Catholica Australia. I do thank the members of this community,
including Tony See, John Briggs and Advocatus who have strongly defended
the integrity of this initiative.
The following graph is a true representation of the visitors to the CathNews
discussion forum from Feb 2002 up until this morning.
The two peaks in activity followed prolonged endeavours by myself in
my capacity as coadministrator and as one of the discussion leaders in
that community to build that community. These peaks occurred in January
2004, shortly before I went overseas and in April 2005 when we had relocated
the forum back with boardhost following an unsuccessful dalliance with
a service provider in Brisbane and shortly before I began my relocation
to Sydney. Interestingly enough the CathNews stats at present seem
to be on an upward trend again and it would seem much of what is generating
the present activity on that site is actually the discussions that are
being generated on the Catholica Australia site.
There are simply no statistical grounds whatsoever for the Wandering
Ministrel's claims that my activities are a negative influence on discussion
forums. The consistent statistical evidence on the other hand is that,
apart from the concerted takeover that a conservative group endeavoured
to organise from the United States in February 2002, what drives the statistics
down constantly is the activities of the naivettes and the insecure constantly
protesting their loyalty to the Magisterium and driving other people who
seriously want to discuss their faith and spirituality away from the place.
This would seem to mirror what has been going on in the physical Church
where the great majority of the baptised have simply rolled their eyes
into the backs of their heads and quietly forgotten to come back next
Sunday. They do not write letters of protest to newspapers and to bishops.
They simply vote with their feet. The Wandering Ministeral ought take
a short lesson in mathematics rather than rely on his creative abilities
as an entertainer.
Allied to that attack on myself personally, the reality is that the Wandering
Minstrel seemed, as Advocatus so eloquently pointed out, very keen to
meet me — and indeed to invite himself to stay at my house. As the
Wandering Ministrel himself observed so cuttingly on one occasion, I do
not always return emails. Rather than the Wandering Ministrel being in
control of the agenda as to who was visiting whom I would have thought
it was pretty plain who was not extending an invitation. It was not the
Minstrel.
I do not believe the interests of the Church are served by all these
protestations of loyalty and smarmy "let's be nice to one another
(except those whom we self-righteously categorise as heathen, heretics,
cafeteria Catholics or backsliders)".
From the experience we have gained, largely through the CathNews
discussion board, I am confident that Catholica Australia
can build a community that is indeed welcoming to that now vast population
who are actually turned away by the activities which people such as the
Minstrel seem so confident offer hope for the future of the Church. The
harsh reality is that it has been ecclesial leaders who are enamoured
of the strategies advocated by the Ministrel who have been in charge of
the public communications of the Catholic Church for the last half century.
Those policies have been an unmitigated disaster in the Western world
where, on average, 85% of the baptised population have withdrawn their
support of the institution. Just look at the plethora of so-called "Catholic"
websites on the internet which actually do serve the purpose of turning
millions more way from Catholicism than they ever attract. The vast, vast
majority of "Catholic" sites on the internet actually do follow
the communication agenda advocated by the Minstrel. Where is the evidence
that they "re-evangelise" the Church? There is absolutely none.
They serve only to bolster the insecurities of the already insecure and
nothing more. If this were a commercial organisation or government without
the massive reserves of capital the institutional Church has built up
over two millennia bankruptcy would have had to be declared a long time
ago. No commercial organisation or government could survive when 85% of
their customers or voters had walked out the door. There may not be accountability
in this life. One expects there may be some form of accountability in
the next for what has been allowed to happen. It is simply delusional
to blame the exit wholely on the attractions of secular culture sucking
people out of the Church. The behaviours of those who have pushed the
faithful out of the institution need to be subject to examination.
The Minstrel can push his tired old agenda that it is all the fault of
liberals and people like myself. The question is can the Wandering Minstrel
pull an audience in the ways he claims he can?
And now, well away from all that negativity that ends up driving people
away from Jesus Christ, enjoy more of the enriching fare that is on offer
everyday at Catholica...
IAN'S
TAKE...
Searching for the historical
Jesus...
The Holy Family: What
is the true picture? This week our resident Biblical scholar, Ian
Elmer, seeks to strip away the pietistic myths that have built up around
the Holy Family over the centuries. He is seeking to take us back to establish
a more historically honest understanding of who Jesus really was based
on the extant evidence and how this might influence our understanding
today of who Jesus continues to be as both Son of God and Son of Man.
[more]
CINDY
THE SACRISTAN...
 Cindy
celebrates a wedding anniversary... Cindy and her husband,
Petal Frog, are celebrating their 32nd wedding anniversary this
week. They both find it quite amusing that 32 years can have passed
by so quickly. Here's a beaut, pensive reflection to soften the hardest
of hearts. [more]
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