An apology to three bloggers and a columnist

An apology to three bloggers and a columnist

With a couple days worth of retrospection, I regret some of what I said in my post “Not manly enough?” I shouldn’t have expressed my displeasure at Eric’s NCR column by faulting those who he cited as examples of manly Catholic blogs. So I apologize to the bloggers at Catholic Caveman, Thoughts of a Regular Guy, and Pro Ecclesia. I humbly ask forgiveness of the men of Catholic Caveman, Jay Anderson, and Paul the Regular Guy.

My intent was to illustrate my confusion at what was considered to be Catholic manly virtue as expressed in certain blog posts, but even if I would not have written the posts or approached the topics in a particular way, it was unfair of me to cite them as such when my dispute was not with them.

I have been in correspondence with Eric Scheske via email and I’ve expressed to him that I retain my high estimation of his blog and column and that I think it’s great that there is a regular column in a mainstream Catholic newspaper that focuses exclusively on what I consider to be a very exciting area of the Catholic culture, namely Catholic blogs. I stand by my disappointment that in pointing up the perceived manliness of certain blogs, Eric started by calling into question the “fatherly virtue” evidenced in the blogs of Jimmy Akin, Mark Shea, Dale Price, and mine. I accept Eric’s assurance that he was trying to write in a light-hearted tone and I certainly don’t think he intended any malice. As a sometime journalist and blogger, I know how easy it is for a joke to fall flat or a reference to come out wrong or be completely misunderstood.

My concern was that these three men and myself had our Catholic virtue called into question in a national Catholic newspaper of high repute.

I hope we can put this unfortunate episode behind us, especially since I have more important things to deal with now.

Finally, to the commenter at the Catholic Caveman’s blog who accused me of cowardice because I said that learning of my wife’s life-threatening illness cast this silly dispute into a different light and made me realize I didn’t want to expend useless energy on it: You are a small, mean-spirited person. I hope you understand the gravity of what you have said, if not now then some day.

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