2006 Catholic Blog Awards

The official results are in for the 2006 Catholic Blog Awards. One of the reasons we hold the awards just before the start of Lent is to provide a remedy for the inflation of head sizes and egos. I always liked the way Mother Angelica would respond on the air when praised. She would say "Thank you Jesus." I would like to do the same though I am hesitant to attribute what I do on my blog to Jesus. Though I do thank Jesus for giving us the capability of humor and any talent I have in that direction. I would like to thank everyone that voted for me in the five categories I was nominated in. In fact for all those who voted for the various nominees in all categories. I would also like to thank those who read my blog and for other bloggers who blogroll me and/or link to my posts. For people who send me parody ideas and news stories and my commenters.

Congratulations also to the other winners and those who were nominated. The award's original intent were more than just to hand out awards to the top vote getters, but to also make people aware of other fine blogs they had not yet chanced upon. I know each year I add some of the nominated blogs to my own reading list. Not all the blogs I voted for came in #1, but there isn't one that shouldn't have been awarded. Voting was somewhat like Sophie's Choice. I consider almost all of the nominees blog friends and the large majority of them our daily visits. There were 120 blogs nominated with 54 making the final cut. The quality St. blog's bloggers is rich and deep and there really are many other blog that should have been nominated.

So congratulations to:

Jimmy Akin for Most Informative, Best Blog by a Man, Best Apologetics Blog. I always liked Jimmy on Catholic Answers but his apologetics mixed with SF and other interests on his blog made me like him even more.

Shrine of the Holy Whapping for Best Presentation and Best Group Blog. They have been blogging for awhile and they were the first to devote posts to POD aspects of the liturgy and to constantly inform us about interesting parts of older rites. They also have the propensity to make me laugh out loud.

Danielle Bean for Best Design and she also offers great homespun humor as a Catholic Erma Bombeck.

Moniales, OP for Most Devotional. This site is always a joy to read with plenty of pictures of smiling nuns doing chores. They also have a great way to say thank you to everybody when it comes to the awards.

Happy Catholic for Best Blog by a Woman. A special congrats to Julie D who edged out Amy Welborn this year. Amy is a class act who has never promoted herself for the awards and only urged people to vote for the blogs of their choice. It is nice to see another amateur blogger who came into the blogosphere with no claim to fame and has become a must read for many of us.

Pontifications for Most Insightful Blog, Most Intellectual Blog, and Most Theological Blog. Last year Al Kimel was part of the awards even though he was not yet Catholic. As a punishment we forced marched him across the Tiber to make amends and what a wonderful addition he makes.

Dappled Things for Best Blog of a Priest or Religious. Always fun with interesting historical tidbits and great liturgical pictures and fascinating information on vestments.

The Anchoress for Best Political Blog. She came out of nowhere to become not only one of the best blogs in the Catholic blogosphere, but the blogosphere in general. Her political coverage is excellent with great analysis and the posts where she turns these skills towards the Catholic faith are always a treat.

The Cafeteria is Closed for Best New Blog. Gerald started blogging up a storm and has maintained the pace. Great commentary and fun to read.

Catholic and Enjoying It for Best Social Commentary. Mark's is the first blog and I read and he hooked me not only on blogging, but wanting to blog myself. Should be giving an award just for his catch phrase "Sin makes you stupid."

You Duped Me Lord for Best Blog by a Seminarian. Whenever you see something stupid by a priest whose name is followed by S.J., go to Marks blog and see the hopeful future of the Jesuit order.

Most of all we are all indebted to Joshua R. LeBlanc for his yeoman's work in making the awards possible in the first place.

The nominations and awards process is not perfect and can always use some tweaking to make it better in the future. Joshua has setup a special forum just for the awards. So if you have any suggestions on how to improve the process or possibly new categories to add, then place them there.

If you are a winner or finalist of this year's awards you can email me and I will send you your adward graphic.