A special message from the Priestly Pugilist

Priestly Pugilist ^ | 5/25/2010 | The Priestly Pugilsit

[Balt]

1:53 PM 5/25/2010 —

There will come a day when the mad people will look at the normal people and say, "Look at these mad people because they are not like us" (St. Anthony the Great).

We (I mean, me) regret to announce that the Priestly Pugilist© has been closed. There is no cabalistic reason for the site's termination at this time; and any you may come up with on your own will be the products of your own paranoia. Suffice it to say, the reasons are personal, which means they're none of your business.

For the benefit of some regular readers who may not yet have checked in this week, The Priestly Pugilist© Radio Theater's last program will remain available for the balance of the week; and you can find it below.

Because this blog has accrued something of a reputation, it is appropriate to look at it’s long history. Originally, it was nothing more than a clearing house for the thoughts of others, which your PP desired to collect in a single place. The very first post, dated October 10, 2006, was a repost of an article by Diogenes from what was then the Catholic World News (now Catholic Culture) web site, taking issue with Pat Oliphant’s offensive cartoon linking Michael Jackson’s legal troubles to the Catholic Church. The last post, dated May 22, 2010, was your PP’s own comment on a news story in which a priest was removed from ministry because it was discovered that he had committed a sin before being ordained a priest, and asking the question: "Could St. Augustine be ordained today?" In between, the posts on this blog have covered the gamut, bouncing about on all manner of topics, including the raising of parakeets.

Like all blogs, there’s a hit counter at the bottom of the page; but hit counters can be deceptive because they don’t tell you who’s visiting from where; and this particular counter was set not to count when the same visitor returned again within a certain period of time. Those kinds of stats are available to your PP, however, from the site’s hosting company. As a matter of cold statistical fact, this blog receives—or rather, did receive—an average of 5000 unique visitors per month from 70 countries; the top contenders—other than the United States—were Russia, Israel, Germany, Japan, Indonesia, Canada, Brazil and Singapore, in that order. 5000 per month may not seem like many when compared to some better known Catholic blogs; but to your PP it was significant.

The blog was started for what may seem to many to be odd reasons. Initially, I was involved in learning web site design, and needed some personal site on which to practice and try new design ideas; but a web site needs some sort of content; so, I began to put up whatever interested me. In case you didn’t notice, your PP is an opinionated person; but, as a parish priest, I had no way to vent the ideas and thoughts bubbling about inside in an appropriate way. Dipping back into my seminary days, I remembered what one of our professors had said regarding the need of the priest to have some sort of outlet of expression that is not church related. So, I created an alter-ego, the Priestly Pugilist, who could vent my opinions for me. It took four years, but the wisdom of my professor’s suggestion was verified in me in a profound way: In the early years of my priesthood I was constantly getting into trouble, sounding off about whatever bothered me in the diocese, writing letters, and basically making a nuisance of myself. Once the Pugilist arrived on the scene, all that stopped. My restless mind had found an outlet, and the steam was easily released on a regular basis. Whether I will return to my annoying ways now that the valve has been shut, I cannot say.

For the past two years, Priestly Pugilist© was hosted by Earthlink for a cost of $14.95 per month, every penny of which came out of your PP's own pocket. At no time were any parish or church funds used for the creation and maintenance of this blog, and donations were never solicited nor accepted. Sadly, this cannot be said of other blogs run by priests. In mind is one particular blog in which the priest who runs it has a link to a PayPal account with the title: "Buy Father a cup of coffee." In its four year history, Priestly Pugilist© has never asked for or accepted anything from anyone in the firm belief that it is inappropriate for a priest to do so.

Regardless, there is much to be said for priests who blog, as Pope Benedict indicated, tucked away in his message for World Communications Day: "Priests can rightly be expected to be present in the world of digital communications as faithful witnesses to the Gospel, exercising their proper role as leaders of communities which increasingly express themselves with the different 'voices' provided by the digital marketplace. Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites) which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelisation and catechesis." The secular media interpreted this as a papal invitation to priests to "get blogging"; and I suspect they are right. While the Holy Father is unlikely to spend much of his day online, he is almost certainly aware that blogging has become a powerful phenomenon in Catholic circles. Many of the world's most engaged Catholics visit blogs several times a week, to pick up information and rumours about the Church, and also to air their views. One might protest that some of the information is inaccurate, that some of the rumours are false and that some views aired are contrary to Church teaching—but the fact remains that blogs fill a vacuum created, in part, by ecclesiastical structures that have lost the knack of communicating with the laity. Nor is it an accident that among the most successful blogs are those run by individual priests rather than dioceses or other "offical" structures. Not only do the faithful like to know what their parish priest is up to, but a seasoned and witty evangelist can build a cyber-parish that extends for thousands of miles. We should, therefore, welcome it for what it is: a gift to the Church.

Thus, there is much to regret in terminating Priestly Pugilist at this time; but one regret that I feel deeply is with regard to the many posts I was able to author regarding the Catholic Church in China, particularly since no one else seems to be paying much attention. For us in the West, saints are people whose features are distorted in icons; China has them in the flesh, and by the thousands. I pray that my thoughts and reports on events there have enlightened someone somewhere.

This particular message will remain up for a while, at least until I’m satisfied that everyone who needs to see it has done so. There is, of course, the possibility that some sort of outlet for my thoughts may find a new home, under a new name, with some even more bizarre alter-ego to give them voice. If or when that happens, I cannot say. In any case, your PP extends his sincere thanks to all those who have read this blog on a regular basis, providing me with four years of exciting and rewarding self-expression. As a parting gift, I will provide you with my e-mail address, and unblock it for a little while in case anyone wishes to send me their thoughts. This, of course, is a blatant act of egotistical puffery; but, as I always said on the guest book page: “Priestly Pugilist exists for me to tell you what I think, not the other way around.” Well, here’s your chance: admin@priestlypugilist.com. As always, I will ignore you and refuse to respond. And don't forget our moto: "Truth over tranquility! Faith over fellowship!"

So long!

by Priestly Pugilist

[Marechal]

Audio, canii ululatus in atrum...

[0beron]

“In mind is one particular blog in which the priest who runs it has a link to a PayPal account with the title: “Buy Father a cup of coffee.” In its four year history, Priestly Pugilist© has never asked for or accepted anything from anyone in the firm belief that it is inappropriate for a priest to do so. “

Oh, you’re so holy.

Some people got axed through no fault of their own because liberal churchmen made sure of it; some people actually use their backbones for reasons of principle. You’ve got to earn a living somehow and he wouldn’t be the first priest to have done so with his pen and his wits.