Catholic Sensibility

Anger in the blogosphere Many comments in a thread below about anger. Some say it's a St Blog's trait. Some think liberals do it more than conservatives. Some believe the opposite. As a person who struggles with anger, I think I have a familiarity with it: I see it inside and outside of myself. I think I was worse in dealing with it when I was younger. I hope I get better as time rolls on. I think a lot of Catholic bloggers bring their anger to the table with them. It's often justified. Personally, I'm still mad at the bishops collectively for their administrative blundering with predator clergy. But at some point you have to get past what you normally see on talk shows and in the movies. People letting out their anger have only tackled the first step toward wholeness. People continually on an anger high aren't liberated; they're impossible to deal with. Elena wrote below and on her own blog about her reaction to poor catechesis growing up. I suppose I don't share that experience, though we did share the same generation, pretty much. I started Catholic school in grade 6, and after instructions from the pastor, I became a Catholic just before the start of seventh grade. They gave me a first grade religion text book to read, which I did. But the time with the pastor meant the most, though I can't recall specifically what he taught my sister and me. I wasn't impressed with high school catechesis, but then again, I wasn't impressed with a lot of things in high school. When I was in college, I began going on retreats, and to talks. We have excellent homilists at the Newman Center. I suppose I figured what the catechists and my non-Catholic parents couldn't teach me, I could read about on my own. I wasn't happy the year our pastor decided to give up the Sign of Peace for Lent, but instead of getting ticked off about it, I started reading about liturgy. I guess people upset about their ignorance can blame their parents if they're teens, and maybe only themselves if they're adults. In St Blog's, I find some web pages more anger-driven than others. Some let on in their titles it's all about rage. Others seem to keep it more under wraps and remain just vociferous or dyspeptic. Commenters can be all over the place, and I though I think there are rather more non-progressives, I think the percentage of angry posters might be around the same. I think St Blog's anger is generally ugly, and something of a discredit to all of us. But reflecting on it this week has sparked me to take a closer look at my own printed attitudes here and on other blogs. That's the only anger I have a prayer of controlling.