We had a great time

This is Michael's talk at our little blognic yesterday.

We all really did have a wonderful time. The discussion was lively and interesting and covered well the complexities of the relationship between the bloggosphere/new media and the Church. In general, we asked and discussed, how being a blogger and a Catholic influences our lives and the Church. How does this strange and sometimes somewhat scary new method of instant communication and information-retrieval affect us, affect the Church and how can we use it correctly?

The panel discussion went on for nearly an hour and a half, and in the end no one seemed to want to stop.

We had people there from Italy, the US and Canada and had some people there with fairly well-known bloggy profiles.

Many thanks first to Declan and his staff at Scholar's Lounge pub, who were tremendously friendly and gave us a really great space, plenty of room and a fully functioning sound system and wifi connection. (And I'm pleased to report that I've finally found a place in Rome that will give you decent nachos with sour cream... those who have lived in Italy will understand how important this is.)

Second, thanks immensely to Michael Voris, our keynote speaker, to Carol Glatz from CNS, Dorothy Cummings Mclean authoress of the Seraphic blogs, Gregory DiPippo of the New Liturgical Movement for being our panel of experts who facilitated the very wide ranging discussion. Dorothy and Christopher have been a huge help with promoting and organising and general support.

Sorry to everyone who was hoping to follow online, we just couldn't figure out the technology in time.

And sorry also to those who came hoping for polemics and maybe a foodfight. Stuart Reid said he had come expecting a lot of shouting and was surprised at how measured and intelligent all the discussion was.

We'll try to be less charitable next time.



~