WHY A WEBSITE???

Coptic Icon of the Holy Family On the Nile

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I have been asked many times why I have a website. It may seem like a very "unpriestly" place to be, this World Wide Web, this cyberspace populated by every conceivable stripe of human sin, debauchery, and plain poor taste. Shouldn't the Church - and her ministers - shun this seething cesspool of filth?

I don't think so. First of all, the web is more than just garbage. There is plenty of good out there as well. Just like every other technology the internet has the potential for both good and evil. The Church cannot afford to turn its back on such a powerful medium. As Fr. Don Conroy, the pastor of Holy Family Parish has remarked to me many times, the Church took decades to take advantage of the first information revolution (the invention of the printing press). We cannot make that mistake again!

The incredible power of this medium to reach people became crystal clear to me in 2004 when I received an email from a young man in Chile preparing for his confirmation. He had come across an article about me while he was searching online for Christian punk music. The article contained my email address. So he emailed me with his questions about the Catholic faith and his struggles as he prepared to complete his initiation. Another eye opening experience occurred on an instant messenger when I spent an hour "listening" to the relationship problems of an Albanian Orthodox girl (whom I had met at a friend's wedding several years before) who was on her computer at the bank for which she was working in Tirana (the capital city of this former Stalinist stronghold). When I was in seminary only a decade ago I couldn't have imagined being able to minister to people anywhere on the globe while sitting at my desk. The world is truly getting smaller by the day!

The most obvious reason that the Church MUST make use of this technology and begin to feel at home on the web is that is where young people around the world now congregate and spend much of their time. It is critical that we proclaim the Good News to a generation of youth who desperately need the message of hope and life that ONLY the Gospel can provide. And to reach them we MUST go where they are to be found. And like it or not, at the beginning of the 21st century, the place where they are most likely to be found is in cyberspace. In the days of the Apostles the Gospel was preached in the market places and the public squares. The market places and public squares of today, especially in the minds of youth, are no longer so much concrete physical locations as they are addresses in a virtual world sustained by a world-wide network of computers. And it is to that world that we must boldly and fearlessly proclaim Christ and Him crucified ... Christ who alone is the Way and the Truth and the Life.

Some may question the choice of material I have included on this site; clearly it is not exclusively spiritual. There is, however, method to my madness. In a world where Christianity - and especially Catholicism, due to its uncompromising stand on life issues (abortion, euthanasia, the death penalty, stem cell research, among others) and sexual morality - is increasingly marginalized and portrayed in the media as the preserve of unenlightened neanderthals young people need to see that people with their same interests, musical tastes, and experiences of the world can be (and are!) on fire for Jesus Christ. That is the ultimate goal of this site.

A second hope is to encourage vocations to the priesthood. I believe that in today's world young men need to see that priests are people too.  It is important that they see that priests are individuals with their own God-given unique personalities and interests, not interchangeable cardboard cut-outs. Young men need to see that God could indeed be calling them to serve Him as priests even when they feel that they don’t fit the “standard” image. I know that the pre-Vatican II schismatics (those who have seperated themselves from the One Holy Catholic Church by their refusal to accept the Church’s twenty-first Ecumenical Council) who have taken up residence on this site’s forum will disagree, but I believe that it is possible for the priesthood to present an “up-to-date” image to the world while at the same time maintaining fidelity to the timeless and unchanging truths of our glorious faith. Not only possible but, I would argue, necessary. Especially if we want to capture the hearts of a generation rapidly falling prey to the “prince of this world” and his clever deceits.