Where have I been?

Where have I been, you ask? I've been spending my blogging energy on Dorian Speed's co-blogging project, the Q&A site Electingthepope.net . (Dorian frequently comments here and also blogs at Scrutinies.)

I know, I already mentioned this. Well, I'm just trying to explain my absence.

It's been pretty fun, actually. All the bloggers in the stable started out making the questions ourselves, and then questions started to come in from the public. The questions start out being labeled "Up for Grabs" and then, well, we can grab them. For me, it feels like a mix of two experiences:

• "Oo! I want that question! Let me snag it before anyone else does!"
• "Hm -- That one's been sitting there for a while. Must be that no one else wants it. Well, I'll take a stab at it."

In a recent local news article, Dorian described her writers (here we all are) as "lay experts." I thought that was funny. "Extremely nerdy Catholics" probably wouldn't have played very well, I guess.

So far, I have had the most fun researching and writing the answer to a question that was originally phrased something along the lines of "Doesn't it look hypocritical that Cardinal Mahony is coming? Can't the other cardinals keep him out of the conclave?" That turned out to be very interesting as it forced me to dig into canon law as well as the election rules. I guess you could say that it would be hypocritical for the electors to refuse to follow the rules, under which all the cardinals -- no matter their public reputations -- are required to participate in the election on pain of holy obedience.

(No, I don't know if that means that Cardinal Keith O'Brien of Scotland, former archbishop of Edinburgh who announced he's not coming, is being disobedient. For all we know he got a dispensation from the former Holy Father along with his resignation from the archbishopric. Pesky thing about matters of conscience is that they're so often invisible to those whose business it isn't.)

The other day I noticed that "What is the Eucharist?" was up for grabs. I thought for sure someone would pick it up, and initially thought that one was too big a job for me, but then the next morning I woke up knowing exactly how I was going to write it for a wide, potentially non-Catholic audience. It was still up for grabs so I grabbed it. I told Dorian she has to get another blogger to vet it before publishing, but I hope to see it up soon.

Ok, off to First Saturday Mass. See you later.

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Comments

[Melanie B]

I was so excited when Dorian asked me to contribute and I've done exactly zero articles. I just remembered I have five kids now. I'm glad the site is taking off though.
One of my non Catholic friends said it was really helpful.