How Catholic is this blog? I asked myself that question yesterday morning. My wife called me to say that she thought the Sirius Radio appearance on the Catholic Channel went well. We chatted for awhile and then I blurted out, "Dang it! I forgot to plug The Daily Eudemon." She kind of startled me with her response: "Well, it's not really a Catholic blog. With the exception of your book reviews, you don't write about Catholic stuff anymore."
Over the past two years or so, I have drifted from a "hard core" Catholic approach. I'm aware of it and it was mostly intentional, but I didn't think I had ceased being Catholic or that I had become only Pelosi-so.
As a test, I scrolled though the 25-or-so posts that currently show up on the main page. At least seventeen of them are saturated with Catholicism (the book reviews, the Sunday morning posts, and a few others) or had a heavy C dose. A lot of text, though, isn't Catholic at all. The current main page also has a dearth of devotional items, liturgical insights, or Catholic news items.
So is TDE Catholic? I think so. If nothing else, I hope it exudes a Catholic world view: The goodness of creation balanced with the reality of sin, love and joy with a sure eye on ugliness and passion, a virulent anti-Puritanism (which hopefully comes through every Friday in BYCU), a recognition that humor arises from our sense of the incongruous . . . which is part and parcel of the incongruity that is stamped on creation from the start: goodness stained by sin, the immortal God become mortal, the almighty reduced to infancy.
I guess I'll have to respectfully disagree with my spouse. So I'm not an apologist like Fr. Z. I don't keep abreast with Catholic affairs like the folks at Whispers. I'm not spiritual like Godzdogz or devotional like Holy Cards. My outlook is still Catholic--or at least I intend it to be. To the extent I let it pervade my writing--without letting it become terribly overt--I think I walk in the tradition of Chesterton, Percy, and others. I pale next to them, of course, but walk stumble in their shadows I do.
Feel free to offer your own input. If you agree with my wife, that's fine. I'm not going to divorce her over this, nor will I hate you for siding with her.
