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Catholic Creativity

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

One of the things I so enjoy about the Catholic blogosphere is the variety of ways people use to impart the faith. Sites like the B-Movie Catechism wonderfully combine reviews of cheesy movies with the Catechism and a recent blog I have come across is also quite inventive. Fr. Austin Murphy’s Jesus Goes to Disney World uses film and other cultural sources to show Christ in the modern world.

There is a lot of creativity in the use of media among Catholics that I find entertaining and informative. The Hands and Feet Show Podcast just came out with their 100th show and so I would like to take the time to highlight this podcast. Seven young adults with occasional guests present the faith in quite an enjoyable manner. Each show contains several main segments that include a quick take on the news, Biblelotion – scripture study, Relationships 2.0, and other segments like the occasional Fr. Bagadonuts. One of my favorite bits that they do is a take off Budweiser’s "Real American Heroes" that never fails to crack me up. The banter among this group is fun along with all of the various bits they come up with. What makes the show exceptional is that you have a group of young Catholics living the faith and teaching it with no watering down of doctrine. They have had many excellent shows discussing the faith that presents so-called hot-button issues in a way that brings the Catechism alive in the modern world without compromise. So congrats to the crew of the Hands and Feet show for their great show.

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News

Catholic New Media Celebration

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

ATLANTA, GA – April 21, 2008 – During the 42nd World Communications Day, Pope Benedict XVI stated that, "The new media – telecommunications and Internet in particular – are changing the very face of communication; perhaps this is a valuable opportunity to reshape it!"

Following the encouragement of Pope Benedict, as well as Pope John Paul II before him, the first Catholic New Media Celebration will be held in Atlanta, Georgia on June 22, 2008, the day after the Eucharistic Congress that is conducted annually by the Archdiocese of Atlanta.

"Our motto is come for the Eucharistic Congress, stay for the Catholic New Media Celebration," says Greg Willits, COO of the Star Quest Production Network, the host of the event.

Held at the Georgia International Convention Center, the same venue as the Eucharistic Congress, the Catholic New Media Celebration is a day to Learn, Share, and Explore how New Media can help the Catholic Church in the New Evangelization called for by Pope John Paul II.

Anyone interested in New Media is invited to attend. Registration and admission for both the Eucharistic Congress as well as the Catholic New Media Celebration are free. Participants can register online at http://celebration.sqpn.com

Parishes, dioceses, and other Catholic organizations are encouraged to send their technology representatives to learn more about the technologies that can assist both religious and laypeople in evangelization efforts through the use of technology.

"It is amazing how much new media – such as podcasting, blogs, and other technologies – have helped people grow in their faith and grow closer to God," says Willits, who with his wife Jennifer created the popular "That Catholic Show" video series and also co-hosts the award-winning Rosary Army Catholic Podcast. "We want the Catholic New Media Celebration to be exactly that – a celebration of this technology for the people who use it, as well as for those who create it."

The Catholic New Media Celebration is a festive, educational, and spiritual one-day event to help all Catholics live out the "great relaunching" of evangelization called for by Pope John Paul II. In the spirit of the Holy Father’s writings regarding the New Evangelization, the CNMC is a day of sharing the latest technologies and techniques used to creatively and effectively invite others to grow in the Catholic faith through new and modern ways, not only in parishes and dioceses, but throughout the whole world.

New media includes podcasts and online video, games and software, websites and blogs, mobile technology and all things interactive. The Catholic New Media Celebration is a gathering of today’s new media producers within the Catholic Church, as well as of those who simply enjoy and have a desire to learn more about new media content, to grow as a community in an effort to more effectively create and share powerful and unique content for the benefit of the universal Catholic Church.

The event is hosted by the Star Quest Production Network. SQPN (www.SQPN.com) produces on-demand audio and video programs, also known as podcasts, and offers a portal for a select number of affiliated Catholic podcasters that share the vision and media strategy of SQPN.

Contact: SQPN
http://www.sqpn.com GA, USA
Greg Willits, President +1.206.984.1899
Keywords: SQPN, New Media, Podcast
Category: Catholic resources

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Punditry

Think about it

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

The always sensible Amy Welborn has a good post on the NYT Papal Discussion blog in regards to Latin and Vatican II. She ends with an absolutely great line.

I mean, if you think about it, wasn’t Jesus, well … “pre-Vatican II”?

This demarcation using the council never made much sense and pre and post Vatican II is often treated as having the same weight as B.C. and A.C. which I guess now means Before Council and After Council. This is quite silly and is like looking at one tree ring and picking it out as having more meaning than all the other tree rings. When in reality every Council is a continuation and a sign of growth within the Church.

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Book Review

Danny Gospel

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

Danny Gospel is the first novel of David Athey who has been primarily previously published in literary journals. This is not an easy book to describe, the enjoyment is in reading it. The novels main character Danny Gospel is from a farm family that goes out and sings old time Gospel songs and spirituals around the midwest and thus the family became known as the Gospels. This provides a background to the character, but the novel is not some overly pious representation of some idealized Gospel singers. Instead what came to mind the most to me when reading this novel was the novels of Flannery O’Connor, that is if Flannery O’Connor lived in the midwest instead of the south. Danny Gospel wants to write a spiritual, but does not feel that he has suffered enough even as the book unfolds with his life and memories of the past and the severe difficulties he has gone thought. These disasters all come to a point and the book takes off from there as you learn the back story and how he deals with it.

I must admit that I was quickly hooked to the writing of the book and this novel had me reading well into the night even later than is normal for me. The character of Danny Gospel is so intriguing and there is so much lighthearted humor in the book in the face of the situations he faced. There are also plenty of Catholic elements in the novel where the father is Catholic and the mother and grandmother our devout Protestants and Danny Gospel himself is influenced in a Catholic direction. I just found so much to like about this novel in the way that it was written and the story told. I wish I had the writing talent to write the review this book deserves, this is a seriously good novel as Dale Alquist and others would attest to.

Disclaimer: David Athey is a reader of my blog and sent me a copy of his book.

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News

If the Cardinal can't go to the Pope, The Pope goes to the Cardinal

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

How absolutely wonderful.

The Pope is going to make a personal visit to Cardinal Avery Dulles in his bedroom while in Dunwoody seminary. It was not on his schedule. Cardinal Dulles is too ill to attend any of the events but no one deserves a private visit more.

Dulles, who is 89, is one of the great converts and theologians of the 20th century and gave his final annual McGinley lecture at Fordham on April 1. When I met him last April, he was still able to walk with a cane. Now, he is wheelchair bound.

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Punditry

My apology to Bill Maher

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

I would like to apologize for thinking that Bill Maher is a unfunny selfish jerk by saying he is a rather pathetic unfunny selfish jerk. Or at least I think that is the way apologies go according to Bill Maher.

His apology under pressure from HBO for calling the Pope a Nazi was ""The pope was not a Nazi. When he was a teenager, he was in the Hitler youth, which meant he said the oath directly to Hitler and not to the Nazis … which is sort of worse, okay."

Bill Maher and his little diatribes doesn’t really upset me. He is like a school yard bully in a small school looking for attention. When I hear about something he recently said I feel more sadness for the man than any outrage. A poor soul who sadly sees the highlights of his life being going to the Playboy mansion. The only real thing Bill Maher evokes from me is prayer for the man and these little outburst only remind me all the more to pray for him.

Josef Razinger as a Nazi Youth was a miserable failure considering that circumstances allowed him to never have to attend one of the meetings. As a seminarian at the time a local Nazi allowed him to just sign up without attending the meetings so he obviously had a good idea about what the Ratzinger family had thought about the Nazi’s; especially considering the families moves to avoid them. But facts were never something that Bill Maher was overly fond of.

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