When the Obama Administration began to attack the 1st Amendment, Catholic bloggers rose up.
When the U.S. Bishops called for rallies for religious freedom, Catholic bloggers posted links and dates and places.
When the USCCB and Card. Dolan and Bp. Lori made statements or gave interviews, Catholic bloggers spread the word.
Catholic bloggers are to the establishment and the dissident Catholic media what talk radio and cable are to the old time news and entertainment establishment.
The great majority of Catholic bloggers would (and perhaps might have to) go to the wall for the Catholic bishops in a good cause and with good leadership.
-snip-
Okay, let’s double-down.
I, in turn, call upon the U.S. Bishops to do what the Holy See did: host a conference… call a meeting with bloggers.
I ask fellow Catholic bloggers to pick up and renew this proposal on their own blogs. Propose that the bishops organize a blogger summit, a blogger confab, a blogger powwow, a blognic on steroids.
Do they mean it, or not? Are Catholic bloggers valued, or not? Are these just words? Vapor?
Your Excellencies…
“Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. (Joel 2:15)
Be nice to have a blognic for bloggers and bishops in Canada, too! Colin Kerr and the Society of Canadian Catholic Bloggers? Over to you!
Foolishness to the world 
It is an honour to be one of the first to welcome you Deborah in an autonomous capacity as it were to the blogosphere. I Know you are indeed an old hand at cybersharing via the English Catholic but frankly I always thought you were casting your pearls before swine there given the company you were doubtless involuntarily in. Like me you will be desolate that Mr Santorum has pulled out but in a sense I am glad as I made the mistake of googling his name and the results put me off solid food for days, and now his name especially in print is an horrific reminder of that experience. The Athiestic Homosexual Liberal-Left Taliban has gone too far and must soon be called to account for this crime. Surely Deborah it is time for Christians to strike back!
Dear Winifred, Please do not use the comments section to trash any individual. I enjoyed blogging with Fr. Anthony Chadwick who really was much more of a draw than I ever was tor the English Catholic. He’s got a fine theological training and wonderful writing skills. I wish him well, and I would appreciate that we not disparage him. I was disappointed about the closing down of the
English Catholic, but it was his blog and his decision to make.
Thank you, Deborah. I have been doing some research. Naturally, “Winifred Godd” is an alias for an anonymous troll. I am not the first to run into this shifty character:
http://valleadurni.blogspot.fr/2011/06/fr-hunwicke.html is very interesting:
Just something to add: the alias name might have been inspired by http://www.manifesttheatre.co.uk/productions/bandwagon.shtml
The cast of that play from the 1960’s also features a family by the name of Botterill. The collusion with the surname of a TAC bishop is certainly a coincidence.
It is certainly a coincidence, I am sure, as Bishop Botterill has many more important things to do than troll on blogs. I wish him and the remaining ACCC folk well. I am thankful for my time in the ACCC and TAC. I am sorry that more of us aren’t in this first wave in Canada, but am praying that we pioneers will blaze a trail and prepare a place that looks like home for all Anglicans looking for stability and an opportunity to unpack and fully use the treasures of our patrimony.
Like the 700 people in lifeboats 100 years ago in the north Atlantic, you have left behind the memory of a sunken ship and frigid waters for the welcoming rescue by the ecclesiastical Carpethia.
I do not imagine for a millisecond that Bishop Botterill has anything to do with “Winidred Godd”, “Lina Banda”, “Glenda Lough”, Robert Ian Williams or any of the other sea monsters that have plagued us over the years. Bishop Botterill seems to be a good and sincere man, and I got on with him well when I met him in England.
Pray for us all, and may God bless you on this day of your reception.