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Catholic Activism in the Age of the Social Internet

Delivered August 7

, 2010 at the Catholic New Media Celebration, Boston MA

Please attribute to Thomas Peters, www.AmericanPapist.com

nline video archive:http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/8776585)

Why Catholic Activism Matters

Im going to talk today about Catholic activism. Im going to talk about moving fromdiscussing whats happening in the world in our blogs, podcasts and other socialmedia, into doing something about it. I believe that often we tend to get lost in thedetails of running a blog or a social media enterprise. We obsess about the numberof comments our posts are receiving, the number of people listening to our podcast,the number of websites linking to us, and forget about why we are doing what weare doing in the first place. My talk therefore begins with a vision of what Catholiconline activism is, and what it looks like in practice. Its something everyone can do,no matter the focus of their blog, because I believe Catholic activism in its variousforms, is a calling all of us can pursue in small ways or, if we choose, big ways.To be clear, Im not going to talk only about political activism, or Catholic socialactivism, or even pro-life activism, Im going to talk about Catholic activism ingeneral and as a concept, and about online Catholic activism in particular. Im goingto explain the program, or mission statement which describes what I am trying to dowith my blog, American Papist. Im certainly not holding myself up as a perfect example. Its a work in progress. But I believe it is a good and worthy work, and onethat needs the best allies, the men and women here today. I think you may also find,that crystallizing the mission of what your doing with your blog will help you inlining up all the other details. And move your blog from being a personal project, tobecoming a fulfilling occupation

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or hobby) that accomplishes something you can berightfully proud about.

Catholic Exceptionalism

For as much as we talk about what Catholics have in common with non-Catholics,for instance natural law, the common good, rational arguments ... Catholics do stillview the world differently. A Catholic is a sign - a good sign - of contradiction.

urformation in the scriptures and teachings of the Church, our sacramental andEucharist-centered spirituality, the example in our lives of good and holy priests, thepope - all of these things are only found together in one place - in the CatholicChurch. Thats why Catholics have something unique to say about anythinghappening in the world - why we have Catholic cooking blogs, Catholic mommypodcasts, Catholic movie reviews, and on and on - Christ transforms and elevatesevery good thing in human life, and the Church is a constant teacher who forms theperspective with which we view events in our daily lives.

All of this means Catholics approach activism in a different way as well.

ur faithprovides illumination about what is wrong

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or right), it provides the target list, soto speak, of what are goals should be, it tells us how we are to prioritize that list, andfinally, it tells us how to go about achieving those goals, for instance, with charity,and hope in Christ. Catholic activism, furthermore, is communal. Catholics know that we are the body of Christ. We are meant to be the salt of the earth, and the candlenot hid underneath a basket.

What does the Catholic Activist Community look like?

This community for Catholic activism is both large and small.

n the one hand, it islarge because we - us in this room - have a huge, amplified effect based on themedium we use.

ur ministries and apostolates touch more people than well everknow. My American Papist facebook fanpage has over 5,000 fans. The averageperson on Facebook has 130 friends. Do you know what 5000 times 130 is? I was atheology major - I had to use a calculator: 650,000. Talk about a megaphone to theworld. Even if you only have your 130 friends, the community of individuals you cantouch second-hand is almost 17,000 people. So, on the one hand our audience ispotentially, very large.

n the other hand, our community for Catholic activism is small. The number of committed Catholics - or, as I like to call them, papists, in other words, peoplewho joyfully and fully accept all the teachings of the Magisterium, is small, certainlyin relation to the number of people living in the United States, and probably also inrelation to the number of people who, when asked, self-identify as Catholics. But thefact that we are small need not discourage us.Pope Benedict has written that creative minorities shape culture. They alwayshave. Small groups of individuals who know what they believe, why they believe,and can communicate clearly what they believe to others, transform the cultural andsocial environment they inhabit. Committed Catholics are the creative minority inAmerica today. Consider who we are and what we have to offer our country,uniquely. We have our faith, and from that faith we have a mission to evangelize theworld, not only in the things of God, but also in the things of man. Christ reveals manto himself, and whenever we act in Christ, we provide witness to what humanity iscalled to be. And while our experience of our faith and spirituality is subjective, thecontent of our faith, and also importantly, our morality, is objective - which meansyou can argue for it, convince others of its rightness. In particular, this group of committed Catholics is well-placed to be a transformative, creative minority. Thosewho employ media old and new in their ministries and apostolates, and indeedprivate lives, are exceptionally well-equipped to do this work.

The Importance of Unity

If Catholics in social media are to be an effective community, we must have unity.The favorite narrative the secular press likes to apply to the Church is that there aremany ways to be Catholic, many disunited aspects of Catholicism. In short, there aremany different types of Catholics, and whose to say which one is the real Catholic?The medias favorite Church is a chaotic, disunited one. That means what they fearmost, is a unified Church. This also means renegade or dissenting Catholics willautomatically get more visibility than faithful ones. Honestly, its as if the reportersat the New York Times havent updated their rolodex since the 1970s. This used tobe a far more crippling situation for us Catholics who wanted to get the truth about the Church in front of the world before the advent of social media. As important asthe old media still is, we dont need them like we used to - and they know it. Whichmeans theyre forced to listen to us again, at least more than they used to. Thissituation also puts the burden back on us. We can no longer sit back and lament thefact that no one is coming to interview us. We can fire up our web cam and record avideo for YouTube. We can write a blog post about it. We can link to a good newssummary on our Facebook profile. We can get together and make it a trending topicon Twitter. We have, in a word, options.This discussion brings up one of my favorite questions: why are the largest andmost read Catholic blogs all written by faithful Catholics? Why are there so few

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anduntil recently, almost no) liberal blogs? Because the liberals didnt need to blog,didnt need a mechanism for self-publication - they had the old media. They alreadyhad a platform. The democratization of media we are witnessing, is a very goodthing for orthodoxy.

The Laity Must Lead

Heres a complicated part of my speech, and I hope its a discussion we can return toduring the Q&A - in this quest to establish a vibrant community of Catholic activists -the laity must lead. I love bishops. I love priests. I am honored to be personal friendswith many of each. But in this field, its the laity who must lead. When I was youngerI believed Catholic activism involved mostly letting a priest or bishop know that there was a problem, and then hoping he would fix it. Many of us have probablyfallen into this temptation. 

h bishop, why dont you excommunicate him? 

hfather, why wont you write an article in the local paper about that horrible anti-Catholic play thats coming out? They would listen to you. There is a place for theactive role of the clergy, but there is a void of strong lay Catholic leadership in thiscountry. And I do not mean to disparage the few prominent lay Catholic leadersthere are. But I think if you would ask them, they would appreciate reinforcements.Certainly in politics, we have been disappointed by person after person who hasbetrayed their Catholic faith the first time it became a sacrifice for them to practiceit. Luckily, there is a wealth of things lay Catholics can do on their own initiative,through the grace of their own baptism and confirmation, while respecting all theclear lines which the Church has drawn over time.