To make sure Cal Catholic weathers the current economic storms, the editors are proposing a wiki-ization of the website. Like Wikipedia, we would like to solicit the help of volunteers to perform the following tasks:
(1.) Monitoring comments. Right now our editors sift through comments three to four times a day, less frequently on weekends. If you could help perform these tasks from your home or office, please email us with a small resumé and the days you would be available to monitor. We would, of course, provide you with guidelines and instructions. (We usually check once between 7-9 am, 11-2 pm, 5-8 pm). Email us at newsdesk@cal-catholic.clients.readerdigital.wpengine.com
(2.) Churches Worth Driving To. Do you or your relatives or friends know of Catholic churches in California worth writing about for our weekly feature, Churches Worth Driving To? Check here to see if you know a California church not on our list.
Submit your church review here.
(3.) Submitting stories. Have a story you could share with others? Please write in your own words, including the Who, What, When, Where, and Why. Please cite the sources of your information. OK to use other websites for news sources, but please name source and date and include link if possible. Please send via email to newsdesk@cal-catholic.clients.readerdigital.wpengine.com
(4.) Well, not quite all volunteer. Our IT person (Jeff Grace) and our ad and calendar listing person (Janet Ross) perform the nuts and bolts work of the site for a combined total of $750/month. So if you could help support us financially with even small donations, we can keep our ship afloat.
Click here for information on how to send donation.
Thanks so much for your generous help.
Better to give $$$ to California Catholic than to your bishop!
The California Catholic Daily needs to grow and reach more readers to carry out its mission.
However, to grow and improve, California Catholic Daily needs volunteers to help seek more readers AND to help with crucial fundraising.
Present readers should invite new readers.
Present readers and donors should seek new donors for California Catholic Daily’s necessary expenditures.
Volunteers can help to keep expenses low.
Please try to seek one more donation for California Catholic Daily this week!
Yes, because California Catholic Daily takes care of running seminaries, helping the poor, providing marriage prep programs, catechetical instruction, etc.
Oh, my mistake: it’s the bishops of the American church who are doing those things!
Too bad your focus is on administrative functions of the Church … recall you’ve been told that the Vatican wants the bishops to leave that to others and start being bishops like their forebearers?
I propose the editors continue to monitor the comments. Don’t leave that task to the more off-beat commentariat here.
Sounds good, I just hope that who does volunteer is a devout and faithful Catholic. : )
You need to be very careful in who you allow to monitor this forum. Failure to do so will mean its end.
CalCatholic has the potential to be an extremely important and powerful voice for Catholicism in California. Unfortunately this forum has been dominated by a small number (possibly 10?) of cafeteria catholic reactionaries who attack anyone who does not share their personal views. Notice I said “their personal views” and not those of the Catholic Church. Their strident comments continue to reduce the number of people who take part on this forum.
Often times the rhetoric is so misplaced, so canned, so ignorant and so angry (and it comes from pretty much the same small handful each day) that I just skip reading this forum. I’m sure a great many take one look and keep on moving.
Their actions are indeed those of a cafeteria catholic who feel they can pick and choose what they will accept from the Church. They set themselves up as the arbiters of what is good and what is bad, no matter what the Church’s official position might be. They feel that THEY are the champions of “authentic” Catholicism yet they’re really nothing more than ignorant and hateful polemicists.
Please choose wisely. Thanks.
R.B. Rodda, It sounds to me as if you may feel unwelcome here. I’m sure sorry to hear that. I always thought that a healthy debate was the American way. Not to mention, standing up for one’s convictions. I may be mistaken but I thought that you may have stated one time that you are Irish. If so, it may just be a cultural misunderstanding going on here. Have you considered “American Catholic” as your Catholic news source? I’m thinking that they be less offensive to your sensibilities. I’d rather you stay, but not at the expense of CCD changing their policies.
Anyway, I myself think that the editors of CCD do a great job screening the posts.
Tracy, Rodda got really brutalized by some posters over an issue of personal preference.
Can you provide specific examples if how these people you describe misrepresent authentic Catholic doctrine?
It’s interesting that you call them reactionaries and polemicists, which inclines me to believe they strive to conserve and defend the Catholic faith.
Are you a progressive Catholic? It’s been my experience that progressive Catholics tend to distort and misrepresent Catholic doctrine, and not conservative or traditional Catholics, as you contend.
It’s also been my experience that liberals frequently falsely accuse their ideological opponents by claiming that conservatives are doing things liberals are actially doing.
For example, progressives (liberals) often accuse conservatives of being angry and intolerant, but it’s been my experience that liberals are some of the angriest (and unhappiest) most intolerant people I’ve ever encountered.
The devisive tone of your admonition to not allow those whose beliefs differ from yours moderate on California Catholic Daily, coupled with the dismissive, insulting description you provided to identify these people, seems to demonstrate the kind of intolerance that is generally found in the most strident liberals.
The veneer of civility used to present yourself as the voice of reason and enlightenment, as you seek to marginalize and demonize those who earnestly profess their Catholic faith is a textbook liberal tactic.
MJCMT, May God continue to richly bless you for courageously speaking up! What beautiful evidence you have shown in defending Church teaching as well as speaking up for your brothers and sisters in Christ!
R.B Rodda is worried. He is resorting to dangling a pride inducing carrot in front of the editors of CCD when he writes: “California Catholic *has* the potential to be an extremely important and powerful voice in California? R.B. Rodda, already knows that California Catholic Daily IS an extremely important and powerful voice for Catholicism in California. This individual must not truly realize that CCD cannot be manipulated out of a false pridefulness. The reason being, CCD really does care about upholding “all” Church teaching.
RB Rodda, You have shown a great lack of love in your post.. You seem to be the individual who is having a very, very difficult time with hearing the truth from a faithful bishop. CCD is unique in it’s important mission to expose error. For many years there have been those within the Church and on this website who have worked very hard to silence anyone who exposed error.
RB Rodda, It is very important for those reading what you wrote above to see that in many circumstances it is the very same people who have worked very hard to silence faithful priests and a faithful bishops who are calling others names such as hateful polemicists and Cafeteria Catholics. Whatever works is the motto and this has worked very well for many years. I trust that CCD will make good decisions in selecting monitors but yes, RB Rodda post showed that he is very worried. He is not being sincere when he claims to be concerned about angry and hateful sounding posts. You will understand this when you read his post below. RB is worried that some new monitor might not let him post what he wrote below. I congratulate CCD for allowing that post to be shown, for today that very revealing post served the good purpose of showing just how much a few handful of the same posters, want the truth to be suppressed.
Pope Gregory said, “It is better for scandals to arise than the truth be suppressed.” RB Rodda, Stop suppressing who CCD selects to monitor the comments. Stop suppressing the truth by trying to suppress our faithful Catholic bishops who do speak up!
Here is just one of the many similar examples of what you would refer to as posting with authentic truth, love and charity.
R.B. Rodda says:
October 31, 2012 at 1:51 am
I find Raymond Burke to be a rather embarrassing individual given his position in the Church. He’s got a big mouth and he lacks tact. No wonder he was kicked upstairs into his current position.
Of course Pelosi should be denied Holy Communion. But the Most Blessed Sacrament cannot be used as a weapon to shame people. It’s far too precious for that!
Pelosi probably receives Holy Communion in at mos 2-3 different places. The bishop(s) responsible for those churches/chapels/etc. should contact Pelosi privately and FORBID her from receiving Holy Communion.
Given that she is a public person person that can (and has) bring scandal to the Church, measures can even be taken to physically ensure she is not allowed to receive Holy Communion. All it would take is a single exceedingly tactful and well trained usher.
What should NOT happen is for any bishop to bloviate in writing that they have banned XYZ person from receiving Holy Communion. Burke did that and it was an embarrassment to the Blessed Sacrament.
In response to RB Rodda’s hateful polemicist post about *Cardinal* Raymond Burke, “For those who believe, no explanation is necessary. For those who do not believe, no explanation will be sufficient.”
Catherine is right, I do recall those comments from Rodda. I wish Rodda would practice what he preaches….he is the one who starts off his comments attacking the Traditional element side of the faith… It’s a pity and a tragedy to me.
Actually, I find Rodda’s comment very correct and very accurate in the sense that there are about 10 or so people here whose comments are “reactionary,” typically cafeteria Catholic. Their comments are not faithful to the Pope’s and the bishops teachings at all; what they know is their own “personal opinion” and that is what they put out there as the “teachings of the Church.”
This is so evident in their personal opinions about the death penalty, which dissents from the Pope’s and the bishops’ call to abolish it. They have produced no evidence to support their dissent, but only misreadings and misinterpretations of the Church’s documents.
Rodda, I agree with you.
haha haha
JonJ,
Of course to you the statements of centuries of Popes, Doctors of the Church, Saints, etc. etc. is presenting no evidence to support our position of defending the Death Penalty. Actually you are trying to use this issue as an in for your blatantly anti-Catholic views on many issues, especially active homosexuality!
May God have mercy on your soul,
Kenneth M. Fisher
KFisher, I am jon, not JonJ. Two different people.
Another thing you got wrong is that the popes prior to JP2 and the doctors of the Church were correct to teach in favor of the death penalty. You obviously haven’t listened enough to why John Paul II judged that the penalty is not morally permissible in our time. Sorry to have to remind you KFisher that you are living in our time, not in the time of any of the doctors of the Church.
Wolves do indeed find correct a sleeping shepherd.
I like the way you put quotation marks around “all” Church teaching.
Many posters, including myself, took issue with the Cardinal Burke statement when Rodda posted it in October. (Not Catherine, though.) What was the point of bringing it up, now? I do not understand why some posters feel they are trying to be silenced just because someone disagrees with them or even takes them to task for the way they post. Catherine said she hoped I would leave the website and the Church. Talking about wanting to silence someone.
Sorry. Lost it.
“…so misplaced, so canned, so ignorant and so angry…”
And yet: So entertaining!
MJCMT said “For example, progressives (liberals) often accuse conservatives of being angry and intolerant, but it’s been my experience that liberals are some of the angriest (and unhappiest) most intolerant people I’ve ever encountered.” excellent way to convey…..better than I could have done.
I completely agree with you Abeca. MJCMT’s post was excellent.
Thanks Catherine. : )
They want you to be tolerant of sin.
I find this comment from Abeca hilariously hypocritical. It was she along with Catherine who expressed their wish that the people who support the Pope’s call against the death penalty should leave the blog. Amazing.
jon its all in how you view things….your views are not in line with the church…so laugh away….away away…
On the contrary, I have said nothing on this blog—NOTHING—that contradicts the teachings of the Church. I however can can cite where you have distorted the Church’s teachings on homosexuality as well as your dissent against the Magisterium’s teaching on the abolition of the death penalty.
I have no problem being angry and intolerant … both can be put to good use.
Hear, hear, Francis!
Thank you Mr. Rodda, for your loving, warm remarks. Truly you must have been overflowing with peace and goodwill as your fingers trudged across the computer board, burdened with the sins of so many others. Everyone knocked down with your verbal shotgun must be absolutely dreadful people and it was so good of you to let us know it! Alas, Jesus calls us to love our enemies, and it grieves me that you find it so difficult to love and forgive even your Catholic brothers and sisters…’brothers and sisters pray for me, we say every Sunday…’through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault ‘we exclaim as we beat our chest. We don’t say ‘It’s their fault, it’s their fault, it’s their grievous fault’ and point fingers at our neighbors…no, we look to our own failings. Somehow, Mr. Rodda, you always criticize and blame everyone for not sharing your views. If you really think we’re all so in error here, why would that keep you away? Why not spend a good hour in front of our Lord in the sacrament and ask Him why others are so misguided?
Dana and Catherine I agree. Dana excellent advice you give to Rodda. I also embrace your advice and I love your idea too…today I went to adoration with my husband…. it gave us great peace during a time of crises…praise be Jesus Christ.
Gee, is anyone surprised at the remarks of Rodda and jon!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
I agree with RB Rodda that the choice of monitor is critical. Above all, the moderator must be even-handed to civil, carefully written comments that may not be in full agreement with Cal Catholic’s point of view.
Rodda, jon and mike if you gave your tithing to them on a regular basis….maybe they wouldn’t have to ask for volunteers to help…..they may just hire someone to help more to your liking…just don’t forget to give them that check, since you have so much fear in your posts and you are fretting so….then your money may do the talking.
You’re wrong Abeca. I have no fear for I know and am certain that I am on the side of Truth. The Truth trumps over everything else all of time.
jon it’s a sin to lie….stop fooling yourself
Very well then. Prove it. Prove where the lie is, quote it word for word. Cite the date and time.
jon not again…we have proven it already on past articles….we don’t need to go there again…then all your trolls will come out again and the battle will continue again and I don’t want to fall in your trap again….I sleep well jon…I am confident in Christ, my trust is in Him alone not on your silly notions.
Abeca, even in those previous articles, you couldn’t produce a convincing argument supporting your personal opinion to dissent from Pope Benedict’s call to end the death penalty in our time.
jon its because you are spiritually blind, I can’t help you there, graces don’t come from me but from our Lord, so pray for them….
If I am spiritually blind then what are you saying about the Holy Father whose teaching on this issue I am being faithful to by adhering to him. How wrong you are.
It is disobedience/dissent from the Vicar of Christ that is really the issue here, not the supposed “blindness” of people like me who are DOING NOTHING WRONG, but are faithful to the Magisterium, to the Church and who call other Catholics to do the same! Repent Abeca, repent!
Give your tithe to them? O Wow! This is the same poster who told someone to start his own church. Should I even mention that she once wrote that she commands angels?
Whoops! Not nice of me. Sorry again.
a good confession would help you with that sin k.
Already done. thanks abeca.
i agree with those who advise caution.
the taliban-types who rant and rave in here should not be put in charge of ANYTHING, especially deciding who gets to post and who doesn’t.
they have proven this by telling anyone who’s not a stepford-wife-clone to leave the site and go away forever.
if only those who pat each other on the back for being super-orthodox are left in charge, no one with a brain will bother to take part.
i’m grateful for this website, but would have to see it die because it becomes a sort of pontificial polemical pravda…
I think the people who were concerned were not worried about the orthodox; they are concerned about those who are heterodox and don’t know it.
Taliban types? Wow, what a really arrogant, outrageous thing to say about anyone, especially of anyone that contributes here. If you were a man I’d call you out!
Dana thank you ever so much for your reply to max….but it’s not a surprise that he would say something like that……hmmm I wonder what is he really fearing…..it’s too bad that people have their own agenda’s…….I only vote for the truth and real church teachings….not anyone’s agenda.
Dana max comments remind of the time when a friend wanted to take my kids to watch a very seductive play because she thought it was educational….I looked it up and it was very inappropriate, she was upset that I didn’t accept her invite..she called me a radical Muslim who doesn’t let her kids do anything fun. I’m Catholic and the play was very inappropriate…why on earth did a concerned mum find her self in a position where she had to defend her role as a mum and to protect her children’s purity?
So it goes to show you how there is a lack of common decency today….max’s comments insult the faithful by calling some Taliban…..that concerns me…. by that description does that hope to intimate the truth from being expressed or is it a representation of how much bad we have become as a society that we can’t distinguish right from wrong anymore…
FYI, when i use the word taliban to describe some of the possters in here, it’s because they seem just as nutty and fanatical as the real taliban in the middle east.
but max you are only stating your opinion…do you think you are excluded…your comments aren’t all full of glory either….I’m sure if I tried I would have a good description for them but heck why even bother….you have disrespected even good priests and even some of the elders here….you don’t consider that a Taliban tone? After all the Taliban wouldn’t mind shutting up the faithful priests of our faith! Just something to think about? Maybe your comments are geared towards jon and his like minded fellows (and some of his trolls)…who knows.
Apparently there is a max and there is a Max, what a difference!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
The alternative magisterium has spoken. Should we genuflect or simply bow?
abeca, I am curious. Is English your first language? You use words in ways that give the impression that you do not really understand them. Sometimes English words have very subtle differences in meaning. It often seems that you learn words or phrases from others who post here and do not understand their meaning. If you are not a native speaker, perhaps you have someone who could explain words to you. I think you said that you are Latino.
Anonymous stay curious, I don’t mind….hmmmm things that make you go hmmmmm
I assume that means that the abeca persona is a false one and you are another poster also. hmmmmm
Whether or not the person uses English is a second or even third language is immaterial to the glaring fact of such a person’s disobedience to the Magisterium, which remains clear, and unrepented, and unabashed.
jon, the person does seem to have little knowledge of Church teaching. But even more than that, he/she seems to love to taunt people and the person posts so frequently that it seems as if it is just an entertainment for them. Since there was not even the slightest interest in finding out what words they were using incorrectly, the person may know exactly what they are doing and it is all a false front. The person is very aggressive, which is very unusual in true Catholics. However, whoever he/she is, they need our prayers. Lord, have mercy on all of us.
oops — i meant to type:
“i would HATE to see it die…”
CCD is extemely valuable because it is a website that attracts readership from every corner of US Catholicism. We have people from groups who are challenging the Church on intrinsic evils to people who have joined “independent” Catholic churches. I know of no other website that allows people to talk to each other without a high level of editing (although there is editing on CCD and sometimes it seems unfair). Article-wise, they often highlight things that get lost or unnoticed. There are a lot of blogs and other Catholic news sites that link to CCD articles. I am sure that you will find someone to help although I did not understand what you meant by wiki-ization.
The editor replies: Thank you for your kind remarks. By “wiki-ization” we mean that more and more of our day-to-day tasks will be taken over by volunteers since we no longer have the resources to pay any editorial staff.
This site would seem to have a very public bias based on the articles that is chooses each day. That, in my opinion is ok. It is their site and they should be able to have a point of view. Given what I consider their bias, it is absolutely wonderful that they include comments from people with whom I know they disagree. At the same time, it is important to keep in mind that they do not have a very large following. Most of the comments come from a small group of people – perhaps fifty at the most. Most of the Priest that I have told about the site have never heard of it and therefore never read it. I doubt that many would read it in any case, because we commentors are generally thought to be trouble makers. When we write to the Bishop, some one three levels down throws it away because we are among the “oh them” folks. The Church is a big tent. People come to us for all kinds of reasons. I suspect that our theology and can\on law is the least of them. Today people shop for churches. They go to parishes/congregations that have good music and great preaching. If you can get them in the door, then you can teach them what we believe. But, it is not what we believe that brings them in for the most part. To widen the influence of this site, we must stop trying to convince everyone that they are going to hell unless the believe exactly what we believe. We really turn people off. Consider how much real influence we have in our own parishes. Many of us don’t even go to our own parish because we don’t like one or two things that were said ten years ago by someone that had no more influence then we do. The editors of this site do a great job, but we have to help them by being willing to be more inclusive and less judgemental of others. At this point, I would not trust any of the regular commentors to be editors, including myself. I’m afraid we would create even more bias toward our personal opinion. Just saying ….
Thanks for your answer. I am sure you will find a volunteer or two.
good ole CATHERINE, digging up stuff on others from weeks ago to make her point!
i’m only sorry she missed what i wrote back on dec. 11, 1965, because that was a real doozy…
why are our elders such jokers….I was hoping there was great leadership…I guess my mum was correct…that a lot of our elders of today, are the ones who are screwing up our youth with their sarcasm and lack of witness in Christ.
They must be in-laws.
our perhaps outlaws…
Perhaps you can move it to a Vbulletin platform or perhaps intergrate
DISQUS or whatever they call it to approve posters and ban them, so that folks would register and once they pass the smell test their postings can become instateneous? until they prove otherwise?
You would also not have some anonymous posters saying things they do not want their names on.
MKM truly…I consider some of the Anon trolls…could be the same people in bad will hiding under that anon name.
Editor, I know it will help if we stop personal attack or at least responding to them. What else can we do to help your new volunteers? Shorter posts? Post once per article? And I apologize that all of a sudden I am becoming considerate of your volunteers when I should have been more considerate of your paid person. God’s blessing on anyone who has anything to do with the work of CCD.
Most websites have a way to alert the monitor to abusive posts. They also ban racism and other offensive posts. I know CCD does not want to do that, but a lot of the problems in the com box is because they don’t.