In the latest issue of OSV Newsweekly, I examine the adulation given to Steve Jobs and compare his life to a true modern-day saint, St. Josemaría Escrivá:

If the secular world had a way to canonize someone, then surely the recent death of Apple founder Steve Jobs would have caused a hasty completion of that process. Jobs was one of the most revered businessmen of our time, and the ubiquity of Apple’s “i”-products — the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad — made him a cultural phenomenon, too. After his death, there was such an outpouring of grief and adulation from all corners of the world that one could not help but recall the worldwide reaction to Pope John Paul II’s death six years ago.

In many ways, the cultural status Jobs attained was unrivaled. Even Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft and his only true rival, does not stir up the passion and cult following that Jobs did. People joke about the “cult of Mac,” but in all seriousness the strong devotion that many people have to Apple’s products and even to Jobs personally is striking.

And, for better or worse, Jobs did change the world. Think about life just a dozen years ago: no iPods, touchscreen smartphones or tablet computers. In just a short time, Jobs was able to push his company to create multiple products that defined their categories and changed the way we interact with music and information. It is not surprising that the secular world recognized Jobs’ greatness.

Continue reading…

Recently, the Holy Father urged all Christians to embrace our call as evangelizers of the modern world. Evangelization today primarily involves combating the indifference of the world to the Gospel. The message of the Church, according to the Pope, “needs to be renewed today in order to convince modern persons, who are often distracted and insensitive.”

I think that description – “distracted and insensitive” – is very apt for modern man. Too many people are modern-day Esaus, who exchange their birthright as children of God for the mess of porridge that is modern entertainment, news and technology. And I think, as Catholics, we need to look and see if we too fall into that same distraction and insensitivity. A few questions we can ask ourselves:

- Do we go from place to place with our faces buried in our cell phones or other gadgets?
I have always been surprised by how often I’m able to engage people in public settings – airports, subway stations, etc. – but of course that would not be possible if I don’t even look at them! Today we receive a constant stream of information, but in doing so we can become distracted from the more important things of life.

- Do we spend time each day in quiet meditation and prayer?
I know first-hand how quickly modern technology can ensnare you. The gadget that is purchased to make life easier becomes the chain around your neck. We must not allow the allure of technology to keep us from spending quiet time with the Lord – and with other people.

- Are we insensitive to the troubles of others?
We live in a self-centered world, and every message of modern culture cries out, “I gotta look out after me!” But the essence of Trinitarian love is self-gift, in which we pour ourselves out to others. Do we care about the plight of others, even those we don’t know well? My wife has been going to the same hair stylist for a few years, and over that time she has engaged him in many conversations. Recently his son tragically died, and my wife had a Mass offered for the son and sent her stylist a card. He was very touched by the gesture. Would this had happened if my wife had simply ignored her stylist?

Before we can effectively spread the Gospel to others, we must live it in our own lives. Take some time today to ask yourself how you can become less distracted by the things of this world and more focused on the things of God.

This reminds me of Rule #4 of my Rules of Engagement for Catholics on the Internet:

H/t: Byzantine, TX

H/t: Ad Orientem

Thirty years ago someone coined the term “reality distortion field” to describe the effect on an audience when Steve Jobs made a presentation. Due to his charisma, Jobs is supposedly able to convince others of his viewpoint even when reality says otherwise. In other words, he could convince Eskimos that they need the ice-making machine he has built.

While this may or may not be true, I think there is a similar effect that occurs with every media personality. When we regularly see someone on TV, or hear him on the radio, or even read his blog, we begin to believe that we really know him personally. We believe that we have developed a relationship with this person, much like the relationships we have with our family and friends. But this is not reality: having access to someone solely via media grants us no real knowledge of a person, at least not the type of knowledge that comes from interacting with someone in person. Although we think we know him, we are in truth strangers. Of course, one can be fooled even when in close personal contact with someone, but this is much more unlikely than if our only contact is through some technological medium.

Which brings us to Fr. Corapi. As most people know by now, he has been accused of immoral behavior and has been put on administrative leave. It is also important to note that he has denied all the charges against him. What I am most surprised by, however, is how many people have strongly defended him (and attacked the accuser) in spite of only “knowing” him through his TV and radio shows. If we have learned anything over the past few years, it is that someone who is orthodox in his public preaching is not immune from personal failings and sins (which we should have known from our reading of the Bible – see St. Peter). Most of us don’t know Fr. Corapi (or the woman who is accusing him), so how can we know whether the accusation is true or not? Because he’s a good preacher?

Does this mean that whenever someone is accused of immoral behavior we should never defend him before all the facts are out? No, but it does mean that we should withhold judgement regarding people we don’t really know. If one of my good friends were accused of something like this, and he denied it, I would defend his good name until any facts contradicted his story. This is because I have built a personal trust that allows me to give him the benefit of the doubt. But if a stranger were accused and protested his innocence, I would wait until all the facts were in before forming a judgement. And in reality, Fr. Corapi is a stranger to me, as my only knowledge of him comes from seeing him on TV and hearing him on the radio. He is as much a stranger to me as the woman who made the accusations against him – so why should I assume that she is guilty (of slander)? Of course I hope and pray that the accusations are false, because if true they are a great scandal, but until the facts are out, I will simply assume that both parties – Fr. Corapi and the woman – are innocent. I realize that it is probably impossible that they are both are innocent, but I see no reason to assume guilt on the part of either party at this point.

I am disturbed by how much we Catholics have let the media influence our judgement. Just because you see someone on TV, or hear him on the radio, or read his blog, doesn’t mean you truly know them. The best reaction in these situations is not to assume guilt by either party, but to pray that the truth might come out and justice served.

I am excited to announce the release of WIJC, the iPhone Companion App for my book Who is Jesus Christ? Unlocking the Mystery in the Gospel of Matthew.

My book revolves around the titles given to Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, contemplating each one in the context of Matthew as well as all of Scripture and the Catholic Tradition. There are 25 different names or titles given to Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel, and some are used over 20 different times. So, if you want to read all the Scriptural passages with each title while reading my book, you have a lot of flipping and searching to do.

That is where the WIJC App comes in. It contains the Biblical verse for each instance of every title, categorized by the chapters of the book. So if you are reading the chapter on the title “Son of Man”, you can simply select that title in the App and easily read all the relevant Scriptural passages.

Here are a couple of screen shots from the App:

The App also contains the Foreword and Introduction to my book, as well as the complete first chapter (which cannot be found anywhere else outside of the book). So if you haven’t yet purchased my book, download the App to get a taste for the book.

And the best part is that WIJC is free! I created this App to help readers to dive deeper into Scripture and encounter Christ there more fully, and I hope it helps to do that. But feel free to email me with any comments or suggestions for improvements for the App.

WIJC is compatible with the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. You can download it from the Apple App Store or from here.

Step 1: Confession iPhone app released to help Catholics prepare for confession.

Step 2: Catholic media accurately reports about the app.

Step 3: Secular media picks up story and screws it up, claiming the app proposes to replace confession, with headlines like “Confess via your iPhone and be app-solved of sin”

Step 4: Vatican reminds everyone that absolution cannot be given via an iPhone.

Step 5: Secular media continues in their ignorance, stating, “Vatican bans iPhone ‘God app’”

It sometimes makes you wonder if they are even trying…

Last June I created a program to rank the most popular Catholic blogs by Google subscribers. I made a number of disclaimers about my ranking system, but all in all it was a pretty accurate way to gauge a blog’s popularity compared to other Catholic blogs.

I decided to update the list, for a number of reasons:

First, I wanted to see the increase in subscribers for the most popular blogs. I was surprised at how many new subscribers some blogs received. For example, the #1 blog – Fr. Z’s What Does the Prayer Really Say? – went from 4,841 subscribers to 6,738 subscribers. That is a 40% increase in just over 6 months! It seems that Catholics are really taking to the New Media.

Second, I wanted to see if any blogs made a big jump (or fall) in the past six months. It actually stayed pretty close to the same – the only big leaps being made due to some changes in my program (see my next point).

Third, after running the program last time, a few people noted that there were some discrepancies between their Google subscriber number and what I posted. This happened in a few cases where Google’s “default” feed for a blog was different than the main feed for the blog. The most egregious case was The Curt Jester, who wasn’t even on the list last time (having only 14 subscribers in his “default” feed), but is #4 now (with over 4,800 subscribers). Mark Shea’s blog also was effected by this discrepancy. I tried very hard to find any of these “missing” feeds and incorporate them into the updated list, but it is possible I missed a few again.

Also, I’ll repeat the disclaimer from the last time:

Big red disclaimer: this list is based on Google Reader subscribers only. I imagine that this is a good indicator of a blog’s popularity compared to other blogs, but it does not measure actual traffic to the site or the total number of subscribers across different feed readers. Furthermore, it doesn’t gauge a blog’s current popularity as much as its popularity over the full history of the blog.

Without further ado, here is the updated list, with number of subscribers listed after the blog name:

Top 25 Most Popular Catholic Blogs by Google Reader Subscribers

(1) What Does the Prayer Really Say?: 6738
(2) Whispers in the Loggia: 6386
(3) Catholic and Enjoying It!: 5154
(4) The Curt Jester: 4858
(5) Charlotte Was Both: 4319
(6) Conversion Diary: 3195
(7) New Advent Blog: 2005
(8) Creative Minority Report: 1632
(9) Patrick Madrid: 1507
(10) Damian Thompson: 1486
(11) Standing on my Head: 1419
(12) The Hermeneutic of Continuity: 1345
(13) Rorate Caeli: 1125
(14) The New Liturgical Movement: 1093
(15) Ask Sister Mary Martha: 1043
(16) First Thoughts: 1035
(17) Mere Comments: 916
(18) Ignatius Insight Scoop: 915
(19) Catholic Cuisine: 836
(20) By Sun and Candlelight: 832
(21) Nadafarm: 828
(22) Testosterhome: 779
(23) The Crescat: 763
(24) Happy Catholic: 745
(25) La Bella Vita! Bella’s Beautiful Life: 740

The updated Top 200 can be found at my main website.

(I’m also happy to report that my own blog cracked the Top 200 this time, coming in at #184 – not bad for a blog only two years old. You can subscribe to this blog here).

This is both cool and slightly creepy:

Hey! What are you whippersnappers doing on that dang computer?!?

Warning: In this post I will briefly transform into a modern-day Scrooge. Regular readers of this blog know that I can be a downright grumpy old man when considering modern technology and its effects on modern man. So if you would like to remain blissfully accepting of the unmitigated good of all “new media” tools, please move on.

Recently, a few videos have come out retelling the Nativity story in a modern, social networking setting. They are cute and respectfully done, and obviously are trying to present the truths of the Incarnation and Nativity of our Savior to a modern generation. Here is one example:

Like I said, cute and respectfully done. However, I must admit that this particular video struck me negatively. The problem is that it uncritically accepts that posting every detail of your life on Facebook is a morally neutral action – or even morally good. However, studies (and common sense) have shown that such actions can be the result of a deeply narcissistic view of the world. Do we really want to suggest that Joseph and Mary have such a view? Do we think that if the parents of Jesus lived today that they would be updating their Facebook pages at every moment of their lives? I simply can’t see that; after all, Joseph doesn’t even have one word of his recorded in Scripture – is he really the type to go about blathering about his every activity on a social networking site? Probably not.

I am on Facebook, so it should be obvious that I don’t condemn the technology outright. However, I do think it can pose a danger to our view of the world, making a person completely self-centered. We always need to be careful that we control our use of technology, and not let it control us. Suggesting that Joseph and Mary are addicted to Facebook is not exactly a good model to follow. In other words: Bah humbug!

A new Catholic news aggregator has been launched with an awesome URL. From its founder:

I’ve launched a new Catholic Newsite that distinguishes itself from other Catholic news aggregaters in that it offers only the best in Catholic punditry. From Father Zuhlsdorf to Mark Shea and from George Weigel to Ross Douthat and everything in-between.

We scour the Catholic blogosphere for the most insightful and well written articles that affect us as Catholics.

It is called “The Pulpit” and its URL is…

thepulp.it.

Check it out!

A while back I was at a conference and a discussion arose about blogs. A bishop who was in attendance warmed to the subject and was quick to denounce bloggers, stating that they need to look at the beam in their own eye before condemning the speck in others’ eyes. It was clear that this bishop found no value in the Catholic blogosphere and wished it would just go away.

I thought of this incident when I read this AP story:

Catholic bloggers aim to purge dissenters

Pressure is on to change the Roman Catholic Church in America, but it’s not coming from the usual liberal suspects. A new breed of theological conservatives has taken to blogs and YouTube to say the church isn’t Catholic enough.

Enraged by dissent that they believe has gone unchecked for decades, and unafraid to say so in the starkest language, these activists are naming names and unsettling the church…

John Allen, Vatican analyst for the National Catholic Reporter, has dubbed this trend “Taliban Catholicism.” But he says it’s not a strictly conservative phenomenon — liberals can fit the mindset, too, Allen says. Some left-leaning Catholics are outraged by any exercise of church authority.

Yet on the Internet and in the church, conservatives are having the bigger impact.

Continue reading…

If I were a bishop I too would most likely be suspicious of Catholic bloggers, as often it is true that bishops get unfairly criticized – and it is frequently the case that the most negative bloggers – the “bishop bashers” – get the most attention. I can only imagine what my job would be like if every day I had a legion of bloggers following my every action to see whether I performed in a way they felt was satisfactory. I suspect I would wish they would go away as well.

Furthermore, too often bloggers can criticize bishops without basing their criticisms in love. They can assume a bishop has bad intentions and treat him as the “enemy” when often the bishop is just making a difficult prudential judgement in a particular case. I once wrote about the Three Credits of Love, and if anyone deserves the three credits, it is the successors to the apostles.

And yet I think there is a positive contribution that bloggers have made to the Church, even those which mostly focus on negative aspects of Church life. Blogs have re-energized the faith life of many Catholics, as orthodox faithful who have endured years of misery in a dissenting or dying parish have seen that there are other Catholics out there who care about their faith and love the Church unreservedly. Church bureaucrats who hid behind their bishop’s cloak have been exposed when they do something against the Catholic Faith. Bishops themselves now know that when they allow heresy to be proclaimed in their diocese that it will be made public (and be made known to the Vatican).

I am a strong proponent of the authority of bishops, yet I am not a fan of clericalism. Throughout Church history bishops have faltered and it was the laity who kept the Faith alive in the world. I am thankful that in our time there are a good number of very good bishops proclaiming the Faith in power and in love, but I am also thankful that many lay people take their faith seriously enough to defend it in the public square, even when they have to defend it against the bishops themselves.

CatholicExchange.com has a spiffy new website, and one of the feature articles is my Rules of Engagement for Catholics on the Internet.

Check it out!

Now I just have to figure out how to get them to create a cool cartoon of me like they did for Mark Shea:

Catechism of the Catholic Church translated into the Pidgin language

and in less important translation news, my Rules of Engagement for Catholics on the Internet has been translated into Spanish.

Scientists have proven a bonafide miracle: Moses and the Israelites happened to be on the shores of the Red Sea at exactly the moment when a wind gust came by to separate the Sea so that they could pass:

In a computer model, Drews was able to simulate what might have happened at the Red Sea just before Moses started a journey that lasted for 40 years. After modeling a body of water that resembled the waters trapping Moses and the Israelites, Drews enforced the laws of physics and applied a wind stress to the water body.

“What I did was use a wind, sort of the strongest wind that I thought … a mixed group of adults and children could walk straight into,” Drews says. This amounts to about a 63 mph wind — a medium-strength tropical storm, as measured by the scale the National Hurricane Center uses.

But this is different from other tropical storms that occur frequently around the world.

“The wind blows on the water, and it stacks it up at the other end. The opposite component of wind set-down is called storm surge,” Drews says. He proposes that there was a bend in the body of water pointing east, and as the water shifted, it separated at the point of the bend, leaving a gap there.

I love these naturalistic explanations – they are so much more far-fetched than an actual miracle from God. It is getting to the point that materialistic scientists need much greater faith than believers.