RobK at Kyrie Eleison tagged me with this quiz.
- Do you attend the Traditional Latin Mass or the Novus Ordo? We attend the Novus Ordo and in fact, the first time I ever attended the TLM was just a few weeks ago. I don’t have any intention of changing our regular attendance, but have nothing against the TLM and hope it spreads far and wide. However, I also hope that the Ordinary Use of the Latin Rite goes through a new renewal and we see more Latin-language Masses in that usage.
- If you attend the TLM, how far do you drive to get there? As I said, we don’t attend, but the closest one is about an hour away in Newton. Not exactly convenient for parish life.
- If you had to apply a Catholic label to yourself, what would it be? I am completely comfortable being called orthodox, conservative, or traditional, although I wouldn’t quite qualify as Traditionalist since I’m not a TLM’er.
- Are you a comment junkie? Not really. I’ll post occasionally, but if I have something to say I’ll usually write it up as a blog post on my site. I don’t know if that’s better or not.
- Do you go back to read the comments on the blogs you’ve commented on? Usually only if the blog has some type of “new comment posted” notification system, like my blog has. Otherwise I can never remember where I commented.
- Have you ever left an anonymous comment on another blog? Yes. Let’s leave it at that because if I said any more it wouldn’t be anonymous.
- Which blogroll would you most like to be on? That’s tricky. Do I want the link for the Google-rank that it gives or because I like the person? For the latter, it would have to be Instapundit or one of the heavy-hitting conservative bloggers. Otherwise, I’m grateful to anyone who blogrolls me.
- Which blog is the first one you check? That’s a difficult question to answer since I don’t read blogs by loading them in my browser. Instead I use an RSS reader which aggregates all the new posts. But if I didn’t have access to that, I would say, first, Melanie’s blog, since of course my wife is brilliant and witty and posts fun stories about our daughter. A close second would be Catholic World News’ Off The Record, since I think Diogenes is always intelligent, insightful, and funny. And because I had a hand in the creation of the blog, lo these many years ago.
- Have you met any other bloggers in person? Ooh, I hope I don’t forget anyone. Let’s see. I’ve met Fr. Rob Johansen, Genevieve Kineke, Richard Chonak, Karen Hall, Barbara Nicolosi, Patrick Coffin, “Wimsey”, Rod Dreher, Kelly Clark, Jen Stewart, and G. Thomas Fitzpatrick. I’m sure I’m forgetting someone, and please don’t that personally because I’m getting old and senile. Even so, I’m a bit surprised by the length of that list. I didn’t think it would be that long.
- What are you reading? At the moment, I’m finishing up S.M. Stirling’s latest Changeverse novel, “The Sunrise Lands.” I’m also reading “The Lobster Chronicles” by Linda Greenlaw and the audiobook of Stephen Lawhead’s “Hood”. I’m sort of in-between theological/spiritual reading at the moment. I’ll probably pick up one of the Pope’s books next.
- Bonus Question! Has your site been banned by Spirit of Vatican II? No and I find that annoying.
That was fun. If you want to answer the questions too, either in the comments or on your blog, be my guest.
IIRC, you’ve also met
Eric Ewanco
Eric Johnson
Fr Keyes
and
Mark Sullivan!
Actually, the one of that list I’ve met in person is Eric Ewanco and I didn’t list him because I didn’t know he had a blog. Never met any of the others.
I have only read the first two Stirling books. I like the concept, and the story – but I do find the whole wiccan thing a bit tiresome. At first it was quaint, but became merely irritating. Does it get better?
If by better, you mean less frequent, then No. It is still just as prevalent, which can be irritating, I agree.
However, I have to add that in the latest novel, he has written the best short explanation of confession, scrupulosity, and the principle of self-defense that I have ever read in a work of fiction. I might crib it myself for catechesis some day.
Stirling is a self-proclaimed atheist (or agnostic, I can’t remember which) who is that rare specimen which treats all religions with respect on their own terms. So he portrays Wicca as Wiccans would want and Catholicism as Catholics would want, and so on.
I have to admit that whenever some Wiccan song or prayer or ritual comes up, I just skim it.
Finally, the Wiccanism bears no resemblance to the stuff we see here in Salem. In the books it’s a kind of Celtic druidism, while here it’s darker and akin to Medieval European notions of witchcraft. But when you get down to it, it’s all an invention of a 19th century Satanist anyway.