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by Elizabeth Hansen

When the National Catholic Reporter’s John Allen used a joke from the Simpsons to describe the Catholic blogosphere, he caused a little stir.

To gauge the life of the Church, face-to-face encounters – versus “trawling through the blogosphere” – are a must, Allen wrote in his Oct. 30 weekly column, “All Things Catholic.”

“At least in my experience, blogs call to mind what Homer Simpson once said about who watches cable access TV at three in the morning,” Allen said. “‘Alcoholics, the unemployed, angry loners ...’ The vox populi, in other words, it ain’t.” 

Later Allen backtracked, saying he’d received criticism from some bloggers themselves and clarifying that they and their colleagues weren’t what he had in mind.

Rather, he wrote on his own blog, what he meant as the real object of criticism were comments sections – “legendary for veering wildly off-topic, and which often seem to elicit a degree of rhetorical viciousness to which most people simply wouldn’t succumb in real-life conversation.”

For now, the Allen episode might have been neatly tidied up – priest and blogger Father John Zuhlsdorf called it a chance for himself and his own readers to examine their online habits – but the case for self-reflection among Catholic media producers is nothing new.

Just last month, the Pontifical Council for Social Communications hosted a four-day meeting in Rome with Church leaders and Catholic media professionals, discussing among other issues the need for ethical communication standards – in an age when anyone with an Internet connection can share his or her views on politics, the liturgy, canon law and current events.

“Charity needs truth, and truth needs charity,” said Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, head of the council, in a Catholic News Service (CNS) article. “Anyone speaking publicly as a Catholic has to have those ethical values that are part of a serious, honest form of communication.”

Inarguably, the Church’s potential for communicating its message today is immense, as the Vatican and pope himself have recognized in numerous documents. Yet the dark side of the Internet’s anonymity and the instant communication it allows is also giving grief.

“On the Internet there is no accountability, no code of ethics, and no responsibility for one’s words and actions,” said Father Thomas Rosica, CSB, head of Canada’s Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation and Television Network, in his address to the council.

He told CNS that the Salt and Light website regularly receives comments on its posted items, many of which “we don’t publish because of the filth and some we’ve turned over to the police” due to threats they contain.

Quoted in the same article was Cardinal Roger Mahoney of Los Angeles.

“I have been appalled by some of the things I’ve seen; of course, I’ve been the object of some of them,” Cardinal Mahoney said. “One of the side effects of the new technology that frightens me a bit is that people can hide behind a fake facade and then start shooting cannons at other people.”

Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, is a consultant to the council on social communications along with Father Rosica.

CNS quoted Anderson asking, “If Catholics cannot deal with each other with civility, how can we expect others to?”

‘A Mirror of the Church’

The Catholic blogosphere is a diverse world: from scholarly commentators on the liturgy to dogged Vatican watchers, and from sharp Catholic critiques of current events to the growing phenomenon of “mommy bloggers.”

Catholic author and longtime blogger Amy Welborn sees such diversity as a “mirror of the Church.” As people increasingly turn to the Internet as their source of information, she said, individual Catholics’ blogs can be a valuable tool for evangelization, “giving a personal face to the Church in a way that say, books don’t always.”

“These seekers will find information about doctrines in many places, but in Catholic blogs, they will find and be able to explore how the faith is lived out today, all around the world, by many different types of people,” Welborn told Headline Bistro. 

But it’s here that Father Rosica sees a danger. For all the benefits of having a visible Catholic online presence, he also sees a trend toward negativity among Christian websites and blogs that adds to the world’s perception of Christians as “people who are against everything.”

Talking to CNS, Father Rosica urged greater awareness that with the blogosphere, “it’s the world that’s looking in on us. What image are we presenting of the Church? Is it hopeful? Is it inviting? Is it the full picture, or are we going to use the blogs to drive the people away?”

“If anything, we should be known as the people who are for something, something positive that can transform lives and engage and impact the culture,” Father Rosica said in his address to the council.

Crossing the Line

What would be considered crossing the line of truth and charity for Catholic bloggers?

Thomas Peters, author of the popular American Papist blog, says ad hominem attacks are “never appropriate,” and that “Catholic bloggers ought never to needlessly cause scandal to their fellow Catholics, or to the wider world which is witnessing us discuss matters of our Catholic faith.”

“If we are going to talk about ‘bad’ things in the Church, we should strive to take the extra step of explaining why what is bad (contradicts) the beautiful truth of our Christian vocation,” Peters told Headline Bistro.

Welborn said the greatest dangers for a Catholic blogger are “ego, pride and a desire to increase one’s audience above all else.”

Both agree that criticism can and should take place in the Catholic blogosphere.

“Speaking clearly, honestly and even sharply are not in and of themselves ‘lapses in charity,’” Welborn said. “Jesus spoke sharply, as did St. Paul.”

In the same vein as John Allen’s observation, she noted that most instances of uncharitable remarks occur in comments boxes and Internet discussion boards and groups – all of which are typically more fluid, collaborative platforms than blogs and in which anyone stumbling across the topic can contribute. 

“On the whole, I would give Catholic bloggers a very good rating,” Peters said. “Obviously no one is perfect, but ‘angry’ and mean Catholic bloggers are simply not very much paid attention to because lack of civility and (especially) charity from a Catholic blogger is a contradictory witness.”

The Vatican’s turn toward new media was duly noted by the press just last week, when representatives from Google, Facebook, YouTube and Wikipedia met with an assembly of European bishops on “The Internet Culture and Catholic Communications.”

In the past year, the Vatican has launched its own YouTube channel, as well as the Pope2You initiative, which included iPhone and Facebook applications that share quotes from Pope Benedict’s addresses. 

Even as the Vatican continues to weigh pastoral guidelines for such new means of communication, it acknowledges their influence in the modern age.

“It falls, in particular, to young people, who have an almost spontaneous affinity for the new means of communication, to take on the responsibility for the evangelization of this ‘digital continent,’” said Pope Benedict in his message for this year’s World Day of Communications.

Whether or not the next five years will see the rise of completely different means of communication, Welborn said, “it is vital for the Church to keep up, remain flexible and alert to these new ways in which people are communicating and finding information.” 

As the Church has learned, if not painfully at times, the call for Christian charity applies to all in the Internet age, as producers and consumers of content interchange almost seamlessly.

“We make certain claims about what kind of community we are,” Carl Anderson told CNS. “We have set the standards high, and we must try really, really hard to live up to that.”