Fr. Roderick Vonhogen, the Dutch priest of the Catholic podcasting network SQPN is going to be in Steubenville, Ohio, next week, along with other Catholic podcasters and media folk for a conference entitled “Media and Faith:Engaging the Culture.” It’s being sponsored by the Communications Arts department at Franciscan University.
I really wish I could go, not just to meet Fr. Roderick and the Willits and the other speakers and attendees, but also to go back to my alma mater. It’s been more than 10 years since my last trip to the Ohio Valley and — it surprises me to say this — I miss it. Something about that place gets under the skin (cue coal and steel pollution joke here).
One of the co-hosts of the conference is Dr. Wayne Lewis, who was the faculty advisor when I was editor of the student newspaper The Troubadour. We had a great time producing the paper and I’m proud to say we won “student organization of the year” the year I was editor. Our April Fool edition was a classic for the ages, especially since a mercifully unnamed board member almost called then-Cardinal Ratzinger because of it. Oops. I may have to find it to scan it and put it online for nostalgia’s sake.
Anyway,the conference sounds great and I would love to participate in many of the talks, especially the podcasting and Web 2.0 ones. I know I have plenty of opinions in those areas and would love to share ideas with the panelists and others on them.
But I will have to pine from afar, curb my jealousy, and hope that I can eventually hear audio or see video (streaming online, anyone?) at some point.
One request though: Please, someone take Fr. Roderick to Drover’s and have him sample the hot wings. And make sure he records the event. That would be worth listening to.
Obligatory pollution joke:
I like to tell my friends that going to Franciscan gets us to Heaven faster in two ways: First, we increase in holiness, thereby shortening our time in Purgatory; second, the level of pollution exposure will make us die sooner.
On a more serious note, this conference sounds awesome but I was forced to choose between it and household retreat. Maybe on the retreat I will become holy enough to finally master bilocation.