Guess which one is Italian and which is Irish!
Some things just can’t be done online. Like shake the hand of a blogging Benedictine nun (aka @Digitalnun on Twitter) and get her advice on how to create a profitable app with no start-up money.
Or drink prosecco, nibble on focaccia and discover while chatting with a scientist who blogs about biology and religion that he is a Protestant married to a Muslim and couldn’t believe he was invited to a Vatican event.
At a landmark “Blog Meet,” the pontifical councils for culture and for social communications brought together 150 bloggers — in the flesh — from all parts of the world May 2 to get a sense of their hopes and concerns. Once again, the church insisted the virtual world should only be a tool, not a substitute for, real human contact, even when the meeting underlines the extraordinary powers of new media.
Greeting people face-to-face also broke down some barriers and suspicions that have built up over the years between some bloggers and the sometimes communication-challenged Catholic hierarchy.
And create communion they did; the St. Peter-meets-tweeters blognic was a real coup — a mini Berlin Wall knock-down — as calling cards, emails and hugs were exchanged.
“The church has something to learn from bloggers,” Archbishop Claudio Celli, president of Vatican’s communications council, said in an interview with L’Osservatore Romano May 5.
By listening to inhabitants of the blogosphere, the church can learn not only what people in the pews are thinking and feeling, church leaders can get a sense of how important it is to speak about the faith in a language that is less “ecclesial” and more “understandable,” he said.
Of the many issues brought up during the four-hour meeting was defining what, if any, kind of relationship should exist between the church and bloggers.
That issue took on several forms.
On the one hand, some bloggers wanted to be on par with traditional media professionals and be included in the Vatican press hall loop when important news was set to break.
Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said only accredited journalists who have been vouched for by their employers and have pledged to follow journalistic ethics have that kind of access.
However, he said, bloggers have played a key role in clarifying the kind of mistakes and confusion that result when the secular press gets a story wrong.
Other bloggers expressed concern about authenticity and wondered if there could be some kind of “imprimatur” to show when online content reflects the faith. Others were quite happy to be left alone and exercise their freedom of speech unfettered by authority.
For the Vatican, the idea of “authenticity” is critical. The faithful need to know whether what they are reading is church teaching or someone’s personal interpretation or opinion.
In fact, the church’s initial wariness of the online medium may have stemmed from fears that the malleable and viral nature of digital texts meant church teachings could become diluted, polluted or convoluted when they hit the Web.
During a question-and-answer period at the end of the meeting, one audience member from the United States asked if there was a plan to create a sort of “mechanism” through which dioceses would be able to judge or control whether content coming out of Catholic newspapers, television outlets and blogs represented the “authentic teaching” of the church.
Another audience member spoke out against such a plan, saying many Catholic blogs are not connected to the church and want stay independent and free from regulation and Vatican or diocesan approval.
The panel made up of Vatican officials wasn’t able to address the concerns because of a lack of time. However, it was made clear at the beginning of the event that the Vatican’s goal with the meeting was not to regulate bloggers nor create a moral code of conduct, but rather to take the first step in starting a dialogue and looking at how blogging plays a role in speaking about faith.
Archbishop Celli said he hoped the dialogue would continue after the May 2 meeting and called on bloggers to take the next step.
Hilary White of the blog Orwell’s Picnic was already ahead of the game. She had scheduled an “alternative” blognic for May 3 to give bloggers who didn’t get invited to the Vatican Blog-stock a chance to meet and talk in a much more informal setting — specifically at an Irish-themed pub.
One of the most distinctive contrasts between the two gatherings, aside from the bar stools and beer, was the near total absence of clicking keys and heads hiding behind laptop screens.
People at the Vatican event were so connected to their mobile devices that the venue’s bandwidth was too saturated to operate smoothly.
When Thaddeus Jones, an official at the social communications council, was ready to show off a new Silverlight video player for a Vatican news portal, nothing but black hit the screen.
One person said it was “a Steve Jobs moment” referring to a similar glitch in 2010 when excessive Wi-Fi network congestion prevented the Apple CEO from showing off the new iPhone features at the product unveiling.
Maybe the old-fashioned pub decor inspired an old-fashioned tradition of just “sitting around and talking,” but it also showed that the Vatican blog meet was the catalyst it wanted to be for new pockets of dialogue to sprout up. Catholic News Service
There are lovely vignettes of Italy here (much of the book takes place in Castel Gandolfo, the town where popes go in the summer), as well as observations of a world-historical figure that will be interesting to anyone with a taste for last-century history.And to think we knew her when! Plenty of shopping days yet – why not order a copy for a friend for Christmas? Or ask them to order a copy for you for Christmas? Or, if you haven’t got any friends then God bless you – no, wait, I meant buy a copy for yourself!
But make no mistake — this is an earnest, at times harrowing book, shadowed by disappointment, death, and betrayal. Joseph Campbell and his heirs have made the phrase “spiritual journey” seem like the Hamptons jitney. This is the real thing. Catholics, Protestants, and plain old shoulder-shruggers will find it well worth their time.
A Minneapolis bowling alley, Memory Lanes, is naming a gutter after Lino Rulli, Sirius XM Radio's "The Catholic Guy."
That says it all. The hip religion show host is returning to St. Paul, where he'll broadcast his normally New York City-based Sirius Catholic Channel radio show for three days this week. The residence of Angelo and Gina Rulli, Lino's parents, is serving as the broadcasting site for the show airing from 3 to 6 p.m.
Those without Sirius XM probably lost track of Rulli when he moved to NYC in 2006, taking with him two Emmys for his work on the cable-access show "Generation Cross," a behind-the-scenes look at the Catholic Church and its people, and a travelogue when Lino felt like going to Rome. He also did a stint as "Soul Man" on WCCO-TV, where he won an Emmy for a World War II documentary.
Maureen McMurray, producer of his XM show, said they wanted the bowling alley gutter named for Rulli as a joke: "We thought it would be kind of funny. We were just basically going for the most ridiculous things to see if people would actually agree to do it. We thought people would say no, and people in Minnesota are just so polite."
Speaking of ridiculous, Rulli's also receiving the key to the Cathedral of St. Paul, as if they would allow this man about town anywhere near a key that was anything but purely ceremonial. In other more believable honors coming Rulli's way, Kieran's Pub is naming a restroom stall for him; Tom Reid's Hockey City Pub a drink, and Stella's Fish Cafe a lobster that will then be sacrificed for dinner by members of Lino's crew.
That's the other unusual element of Rulli's return: Lino's GOT PEOPLE! Important people, too. When Rulli lived in the Twin Cities, he contacted me himself for publicity. Now, Joseph Zwilling, GM and director of communications for the Archdiocese of New York, manages Rulli's media contacts.
I told Zwilling that despite the single Catholic guy's active romantic life, I've always thought he was fighting a call to the priesthood.
"You know, some people are working on him," said Zwilling.
Lino on the lineAfter getting my voice mail about how he'd gone big time on me, Lino Rulli did call me.
He didn't realize the GM of the station had reached out to me. I told Rulli that there must have been something divine about Joseph Zwilling's e-mail. The reference to "Lino" in the first sentence meant nothing to me except Lino Lakes, and I was this close to deleting it without reading more, thinking that there was a huge mixup if I was on the "Archdiocese of New York" e-mail list. Star Tribune
Mostly, I’m a dabbler. I’ve done lots of things, few of them really well. I have a long list of things that I should do at least once (getting my ticket punched before I depart this vale of tears), and now and then I do something about shortening the list. Going to an opera is one of those things
I used to listen to the Texaco radio broadcasts of the Met, not really understanding, but appreciating the marvelous sounds that came through the plastic speakers of my cheap radio. My best friend in high school was somewhat knowledgeable about opera because his dad, a firemen for the city and a regular guy, was a real opera fan and owned many vinyl disks. I thought to self, “Self, you too should go to an opera some day. They’re not just for rich people anymore.”
Back when I was at the U of MN I would note with approval when a dozen or so semis pulled up behind Northrup Auditorium, chock full of scenery, costumes and instruments for the annual springtime appearance of the Met, bringing a half dozen works of their just closed season to the upper midwest. People from hundreds of miles around would plan their annual vacations for those always sold out performances. The closest I ever got to attending one was peeking through a crack in one of the double doors, though. Actually, the closest I actually did get to any high culture was attending a movie showing of a performance by Nureyev and Fonteyn of the ballet, Les Corsaire, in a small town in
Over time I have attended lots of theater performances and even some modern dance. I actually surprised myself by joining a Gregorian Chant schola a few years ago (They haven’t thrown me out). But I had never been to an opera. Then I read that the Met was recording their performances digitally and showing them live around the country on movie screens And during the Summer, they have encore performances of their more popular events.
I didn’t bite until a few weeks ago. Somehow I saw a reference to the encore presentations and decided to check the schedule. La Boheme was being shown in
[How many of you remember impromptu “Come as you are –right now!- parties” from the 50s? They were all the rage for a while. That was a time when all the men wore fedoras and people dressed up to go to the barber shop or the corner grocery store. It was revealing and amusing if people would dare show up at a house party wearing clothing they wore (or didn’t wear) behind locked doors. For better or worse, the beatniks and the hippies changed all that for us.]
On the appointed evening I drove out to the enormous megaplex, near Hwys 394 and 100. I suppose there were 75 or so of us there on that gorgeous Summer evening. Fortunately, the fellow sitting next to me (munching popcorn) was a real fan, of probably the same vintage as me, had been to the Met many times. He gave me a few tips and answered a few novice questions.
Well, Tuffy, it sure didn’t sound like Gregorian Chant, generally slow, low and controlled.
But with helpful subtitles and camera close-ups, it didn’t take me long before I was fully enraptured by the performances.
The 2008 Met performance (Conductor: Nicola Luisotti; Production: Franco Zeffirelli; Angela Gheorghiu, Ainhoa Arteta, Ramón Vargas, Ludovic Tézier, Quinn Kelsey, Oren Gradus, Paul Plishka) was easy to follow, very enjoyable, surprisingly (to me) amusing at times, and at other times the performances were tearfully thrilling. I had forgotten that both Shakespeare and Mozart were not above using a little slapstick humor in their theatrical works to keep the attention of the peanut gallery in the cheap seats in the back. If this is opera, I‘ll need to see some more.
One of the great things about these digital performances is that there are no “cheap seats.” With the close-up camera, everything seem to be performed as if I was the only person watching. I would love to have seen Beverly Sills in a digital performance like this. She had an incredible ability to perform and personally communicate (and enjoy herself), all at the same time.
I’m kind of a geeky guy, logistically speaking. (One of my favorite books is “The Logistical History of the U.S. Army in World War II). I particularly enjoyed it when the camera would show a bit of the set changes between the acts and even of the camera that was on a rail below the performers that could follow their movements. In just a few seconds it showed how enormously complex it is to put on an opera of this size at the Met. The control room for the stage manager must be like that of a NASA shuttle launching or the NBC Nightly News. Occasional views of the audience confirmed that Mitchell is right, even there were a few casually dressed fans.
The second act, a street and tavern scene, must have had 400 performers on the stage, all exquisitely costumed, in motion, yet not being able to move very far, somewhat like you would see at times on the Midway at the Minnesota State Fair. Except carny barkers don’t sing like that. Although I must admit I am greatly amused and entertained by the carny talkers’ calls and cracks to get the rubes to part with some of their hard earned cash. It reminded me also of some of the beautiful street scenes from the movie, Oliver!.
The sound also was unbelievably pure. How those performers can fill the cavernous Metropolitan Opera House, unamplified, I don’t understand. Of course, they would have had very expensive boom microphones for the digital performance recording.
I once attended a performance of Peter, Paul and Mary in the Albert Hall in
On a personal level, I totally approve of the casting of this performance. I didn’t see too many men with 28” waists. Very good for my morale! Another reason to like opera!
Here are the rest of the performances for few last weeks of the Summer Encore Season. (Turondot and Carmen, and if you want to go to
As the gap widened between him and his fundamental Baptist church, Bob Hayton found himself with more and more questions about his faith.
The St. Paul father of four began writing out his questions on a blog to help make sense of his thoughts, particularly the more controversial points.
Hayton eventually left his church, and those thoughts evolved into the creation of his popular blog Fundamentally Reformed
| Catholic | All | ||||
| Blogs | Catholicism | Catholic | Religion | Blogs | |
| Whispers in the Loggia | 1 | 41 | 83 | 1,453 | |
| "Father Z" (WDTPRS) | 2 | 86 | 99 | 3,282 | 4,238 |
| Curt Jester | 3 | 63 | 109 | 4,089 | 5,921 |
| American Papist | 4 | 35 | 111 | 3,822 | 4,955 |
| Shrine Holy Whapping | 5 | 334 | 230 | 6,571 | 10,117 |
| New Liturgical Movement | 6 | 50 | 146 | 6,387 | |
| Mark Shea (CAEI) | 7 | 128 | 6,649 | 7,710 | |
| Ironic Catholic | 14 | 595 | 10,992 | 20,992 | |
| In the Light of the Law | 27 | 127 | 310 | 9,531 | 12,645 |
| Orbis Catholicus | 200 | 17,587 | 40,780 | ||
| Roamin' Roman | 2649 | 62,713 | |||
| Faithmouse | 2810 | 69,848 | |||
| Monastic Musings | 106,781 | ||||
| Weight of Glory | 108 | 120,547 | |||
| New Advent | 1 | 2 | 35 | ||
| Catholic Answers | 2 | 5 | 121 | ||
| Vatican | 4 | 6 | 31 | ||
| CatholicOnline | 5 | 1 | 56 | ||
| Catholic Encyclopedia | 6 | 7 | 62 | ||
| American Catholic | 7 | 8 | 160 | ||
| EWTN | 8 | 4 | 101 | ||
| Catholic.net | 9 | 10 | 199 | ||
| Catholic Culture | 10 | 11 | 343 | ||
| USCCB | 11 | 9 | 230 | ||
| Catholicity | 14 | 14 | 534 | ||
| Catholic Exchange | 17 | 13 | 507 |
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[Desperate Irish Housewife reactivated herself just under the wire to avoid listing here]
