"If the Catholic blogosphere is to survive then our bloggers must become more Catholic" - a comment

Find below a comment that I have just written as part of a debate on the Catholic Herald website in response to an article published yesterday on the site entitled 

"If the Catholic blogosphere is to survive then our bloggers must become more Catholic" by journalist Mary O'Regan

Go here for the original article and full comment discussion:

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It's all well and good declaring oneself to be a defender of orthodox Catholicism, but if that "defence" involves verbally abusing others (including other Catholics) who happen to not agree with everything you say (as some of the more extreme commenters seem to take delight in doing) then as far as I can see you are denying the core teaching of orthodox Catholicism, its foundational commandment which you would not need me to remind you. For the sake of clarity I will spell it out...

Love God and love your neighbour as you love yourself.

Pope Francis has chosen a particular way of responding to God's call to follow Christ, his Son, by striving to become more like him in our daily relationships with those we meet, of being, as Francis puts it, "missionary disciples".

It seems to me that in this sense he is far closer to the core of Catholic "orthodoxy" than most of us, myself included.

There is, however, a debate to be had about the issues that are raised by the focus of his papacy on Christianity in action and away from the reinforcing of dogma. As the more enlightened commentators recognise, however, he does not deny the pillars of our Catholic faith. Rather, he strives to put them into a context of daily living where they serve not as an end in themselves, but rather as a means to an end. Is this not what Jesus did through his actions and teaching in parables?

Teaching in parables, modern parables (using modern media, i.e. film/tv/video, music, art literature, story, poetry...) would this not be an excellent use of the time and effort of Catholics in the blogosphere instead of the sniping, criticism and negativity that nowadays seems to dominate?? Where are the Catholics producing media of the quality of the following video, a testimony by Gareth Gilkeson, the drummer of N. Ireland Chrisitian worship band, Rend Collective, currently enjoying worldwide success for the songs, albums and live ministry?

The obvious joy that he exudes through his deep personal encounter with Christ and the passion that he has for wanting to share that joy with others is for me an inspiration. Would that we were all like him, striving to bring others closer to Christ and helping them to know and understand God's love for each one of us

There are a few Catholics that have broken through in the modern worship scene: Matt Maher and Audrey Assad to name but a couple (check out Audrey's beautiful, prayerful concept album "Fortunate Fall"), but in this area Catholics are very much in the minority compared to our Evangelical Protestant cousins.

On a related point...

I'm a firm believer in the power of the Holy Spirit working within each of us and through us working in the Church (funny how it rarely gets a look in on most Catholic debate forums). Can we not trust it to work through the minds and hearts of the College of Cardinals when it comes to electing a Pope?? Do we as individuals know better than them? Do we have a hardline connection to His Spirit and therefore know better than the chosen leaders of His Church what His will is? I would call it a supreme arrogance on my part to presume that I knew better than them.

So, let's have reasoned debate, yes. Let's have the defence of Catholic beliefs, yes. But, most importantly, let's show love and respect to all... YES!!