USCCB Media Blog: Bishop Zavala Criticizes Catholic Bloggers

If in Command, Command; if a Shepherd, Shepherd

Folks, the USCCB Media Blog published this talk by His Excellency Bishop Gabino Zavala, auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles and Chairman of the U.S. Bishops' Communications Committee, on what it means to be a faithful Catholic media organization today. In it, Bishop Zavala singled out Catholic bloggers for particularly criticism:

As I talked with brother bishops in preparation for this presentation, there was consistent agreement that one aspect that is most alarming to us about media is when it becomes unchristian and hurtful to individuals. For example, we are particularly concerned about blogs that engage in attacks and hurtful, judgmental language. We are very troubled by blogs and other elements of media that assume the role of Magisterium and judge others in the Church. Such actions shatter the communion of the Church that we hold so precious.

First, let me say that the talk was well-balanced, particularly when he spoke about Catholic media in general. However, singling out Catholic blogs for particular criticism bothers me a little. Not because what His Excellency says isn’t true – we can find examples of hurtful attacks, judgmental language, and magisterial pretensions in plenty of blogs. There are no lack of examples and to my own chagrin, I may have engaged on occasion on the behavior Bishop Zavala decries. I have no pretense at wearing fig leaves.

There is, of course, another side of this coin which the good bishop and all likely-minded hierarchs would do well remembering. I am not ordering, I am suggesting, I filially ask my Shepherds to consider that if they fail in their witness to face the Culture of Death, in disciplining public sinners – politicians in particular, but also religious and even priests – when these dividers openly defy the communion of the Church by screeching their particular opinions as exceptions to the Catholic rule; if the bishops fail to call these to repentance using the healing and restorative tools at their disposal, and if they turn a blind eye to liturgical innovations and abuses, then the less qualified will pick up their slack. Please, don’t come complaining when we do because ours in not all the blame. You Elected Ones have to do your jobs too.

Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz use to say: “When in command, command.” I call it the Nimitz Axiom. There’s a corollary applicable to Catholic Bishops: if you are a shepherd, shepherd.

With all due respect, I disagree with Bishop Zavala. Despite our exuberance and occasional missteps, Catholic bloggers are not a threat to the Church’s communion. These threats are to be found not only in those who have brought grave scandal to the Church, be it by embracing the Culture of Death, defying the Church’s teaching publicly, or damage our Novus Ordo liturgy by wanton experimentation and lackadaisical celebrations,  but also by bishops who look the other way and are unwilling to bring the miscreants to heel. The sexual abuse scandal and the noxious environments that sustained it – and that still persists in many places – stand on a category of their own. Many from among us would not be so shrill – and here I do take distance from them – if the bishops had been doing their jobs right in the first place.

Most mainstream Catholic bloggers are respectful and obedient to the magisterium of our bishops. The extremists will go their own way and besides, they tend to self-destruct rather quickly. Ours should be a symbiotic relationship. But in the light of the sex abuse crisis and the often timid episcopal response to other clear challenges bloggers and bishops are often not in sync. This is not the bloggers’s fault either.

Bishop Zavala has rightly pointed out what’s wrong with many Catholic bloggers. I hope that in the future he could single us out for what we do right. May that then serve as a new beginning as we Catholic bloggers place our talents at the service of Christ and His Church.