First? Maybe not, but early

First? Maybe not, but early

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An amusing anecdote from the UK today. The Catholic Herald, a British Catholic newspaper, writes in its “Editor’s Briefing” about the Catholic blogosphere. (Page down to “The Bishops and Bloggers”.) Their aim is to discuss the fact that Britain’s bishops see bloggers as thorns in the side.

However, the article traces the origins of the Catholic blogosphere back to Josh LeBlanc and (now-Fr.) Chris Decker’s creation of CyberCatholics.com in 2000 (although I don’t know if it was a blog per se; maybe Josh can clear that up) or to … me.

Dominico Bettinelli Jr, managing editor of Catholic World Report, has a claim to the world’s first Catholic blog. He began to blog daily at Bettnet.com after the terror attack on September 11 2001. After 9/11 there was an explosion of blogging in the United States and talented Catholic bloggers began to attract a nationwide audience.

Unfortunately, he makes several mistakes here, besides spelling my first name wrong. First, I am not the managing editor of Catholic World Report and have not been so for a long time. Second, I began blogging in July 2001, but did not begin doing so daily until later, although a portion of my archives is missing between November 2001 and March 2002. Before that, it was once per week or a couple times per week at most. Third and most important, Kathy Shaidle was blogging at Relapsed Catholic on October 19, 2000, almost a year before I started.

Anyway, it’s flattering to be recognized, but I have to give credit where it’s due.

 

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