I've complained about the lack of stimulating Catholic content in the media, including on the web. To be honest, I rarely watch any video or read any article on Catholic themes without thinking: "Ho hum. I agree with you already, and you're not telling me anything new."
But recently I've discovered Fr. Mike Schmitz, and I think he's very good.
Actually, I'd seen some of this priest's videos before, and I have to admit I was rather prejudiced against him. He has a golly-gosh, happy-smiley manner which I assumed meant he was a wishy-washy priest. I was wrong! Somehow, another of his videos caught my attention, and won me over to check out some others. As far as I can see they are all very solid-- and, more to the point, he manages to relate Catholicism to ordinary life. Maybe he's not told me anything I didn't know, but he made it compelling, and made me look at some things I already knew in a different (and helpful) way.
It also made me think about the whole smiley happy thing. Fr. Schmitz uses it to very good effect. He's not watering anything down, he's just presenting it in a genial manner. Some of his jokes are cheesy, but that might not be the worst thing in the world.
As I've said before, my attitude towards Michael Voris of Church Militant TV has shifted. There was a time when I wrote against him. Subsequently, as I realized just how much of a crisis has developed within the Church itself, I changed my mind, and I now think the work he's doing is very important. But I still have reservations about his style. It's important to speak out about the crisis in the Church, and about the watering-down of doctrine, discipline and devotion...indeed, the complete neglect of the supernatural in all too many cases. But Voris rarely seems to talk about anything else, and that relentless negativity and abrasiveness is, in my view, rather unhealthy. I'm told that his channel's premium content focuses more on ordinary catechesis, and perhaps that's true. But I'm only going on the free content (which is also rather excessively devoted to pleas for donations).
I'm one of the few people at our church that has never watched "church militant". Somehow these personalities just don't interest me.
ReplyDeleteNot as interesting as people on Irish conservatives Forum. I looked the discussion on THE BENEDICT OPTION, which I'd never heard of.
On the other side of the spectrum: I'm not sure if Alan Joyce is well known in Ireland at all? He's an Irishman who became CEO of Qantas airlines some years ago and a militant advocate of same sex marriage. He's clashed with right-leaning journalist Miranda Devine, whose father was a regular contributor of ANNALS, on the issue. In Perth for a business breakfast this week he received a pie in the face(lemon meringue). The perpetrator later said it was a protest against CEOs interfering with social issues such as marriage equality.
What was interesting #1: Joyce said he would press charges-it would seem only after the gay marriage issue was declared. How many politicians and others get pelted with something worse than lemon meringue and just let it go ?
What was interesting #2: Joyce said in a statement that "we live in a democracy.... We live in a society where we have freedom of speech" and then declared that there SHOULDN'T be a referendum on same-sex unions, the government should decide for us. "parliament should get on and do it" or else, in the words of THE WEST AUSTRALIAN "a plebiscite on same sex marriage ran the risk of inflaming community feeling and encouraging more situations like the pie attack"
Post script one.
ReplyDeleteWhen I said I wasn't interested in these people I wasn't referring to Fr Schmitz who I may have a peek at. But I've heard much about the angry tone of mrVorris.
Post script two. When they had a referendum in Ireland was there a significant increase in lemon meringue assault?
Ha ha! As far as I know, nobody threw any lemon meringue pies, but a huge amount of pro-marriage posters were defaced and pulled down. There were also many voices urging that there should be no referendum, it should simply be legislated for. The Irish Times' most loony left columnist even suggested there should be a government body to monitor potential homophobia during the campaign!
DeleteI'd never heard of Alan Joyce, but he seems like someone who eminently deserves a face full of lemon meringue pie.