Interesting story in today’s Boston Globe about a new blog being started By Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Boston.

The blog — Cardinal Seán’s Fall Trip To Rome — is expected to include at least one post per day during O’Malley’s 10-day visit to Rome. It’s being started as an experiment, according to the Globe article, but could become permanent. I hope it does.

This blog certainly has the potential to become a successful — and meaninful — venture over time, but only if:

  • O’Malley writes in an authentic and unfiltered voice.
  • O’Malley is truly willing to connect to his readers on what concerns them. A ceremonial trip to Rome is one thing, but writing about the real everyday issues that concern Catholics — church closings, healing the wounds of the sexual abuse cases, etc. — would be quite another.
  • Comments to the blog are allowed (this question is still being discussed by the Boston archdiocese), and the cardinal answers those comments, engaging in a genuine conversation.

I count myself as one of thousands of Bostonians who has left the Catholic Church in recent years, and my disillusionment with the Church’s leadership was one of the motivating factors in that decision. A real attempt by the cardinal to reach out to others who are feeling that way with a dynamic blog would certainly be a step in the right direction.

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