Being a student of U.S. Catholicism, and someone who is interested new media, I was intrigued to see the other day that Sean Cardinal O’Malley of Boston is blogging his current trip to Rome. Of course, most U.S. Catholics have no idea what happens inside the secretive walls of the Vatican — and in some senses, we don’t really want to know (if you do, you should read Inside the Vatican by Tom Reese, S.J., the former editor of America).
The design on this blog certainly isn’t the best, but it is a shining example of the burgeoning of Roman Catholic media usage. This engagement with media has long history in the US — from widespread usage of radio by the local chapters of the National Councils of Catholic Men and Women, and fraternal organizations in the 1920s, Father Charles Coughlin in the 1930s, Archbishop Fulton Sheen, first on the radio and then on television from the 1920s through the end of the 1960s, and right up to our current Catholic media with radio, and the distinctly conservative Eternal Word Television Network. In fact, the new Archbishop of Washington DC, Donald Wuerl, had a long-running Sunday morning television show during his 18 years as bishop of Pittsburgh.
Clearly we’re bound to see a greater web presence from the U.S. Catholic clergy and hierarchy if Cardinal Sean feels this venture is a successful effort at outreach to his demoralized archdiocese.