Wednesday 9 April 2008

Word of Life April 2008

Tonight a small group of us met for a meeting of our "Word of Life" group. This was our first meeting since the death of Chiara Lubich, so we began with a prayer for her:

"Eternal rest grant to her, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon her. May she rest in peace and rise again in glory"

The text for this month's Word of Life was from Isaiah 32:17: Integrity will bring peace, justice give lasting security. This is part of Chiara Lubich's meditation on the text:



By recognizing other people as members of our own family, who are waiting for us to notice them, give them respect, and come close to them in solidarity.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

well, if you really hold that nice sentiment to be true, why censor the reasonable, rational, comments of ordinary Catholics on a blog called "Catholic Commentary ?"

just a query, that`s all.

From someone very VERY familiar with where the line in the sand is drawn on media libel laws.

Joe said...

francis de sales:

I am not able to work out exactly where you are coming from with this comment. I have only rejected one comment since starting this blog, and, in a second case, posted the majority of the substance of another comment in my own words (and that because, at the time, I was unsure of the factual accuracy of a point made in the original comment).

I have set up the blog so that all comments need my approval before appearing, and that is a condition that posters of comments will see as they post. I have no intention of changing that.

One aspect of my judgement to allow or not to allow a comment has to do with the temperance or intemperance of language used. Another is a judgement as to whether I feel my blog is being used by commenters to provide a kind of "proxy blog", when they don't appear to have a blog of their own. A third factor, of course, is factual accuracy - I am not going to post something when I know it is inaccurate. As I receive comments, my sensitivity to these three points has become more acute. I am not sure that I have always made the correct decisions - but that, I suspect, is the nature of matters of judgement

If you look at the dialogue in the comments on my posts on Richard Feynman I think you will find ample evidence to answer any charge of "censorship".

The bottom line: there comes a point where the comments I allow reflect on me and my blog. Courteous and well argued comments reflect well, and others don't. So I will continue to use my judgement as indicated above.

Anonymous said...

0 degrees knows nothing about Richard Feynman but i don't think francis de sales will be sending a xmas card this year.

Anonymous said...

Joseph, I wonder if there is a problem with some of the comments actually getting to you.. they might be getting lost in the ether, or somehow not making it to you. I have recommended your blog to quite a few - it is quite different to many of the Catholic ones, in that it is "sciency" - and that is something that`s been missing from the Catholic blogosphere..... but I know from my own experience and from a colleague, that the comments are somehow not getting through. It is reasonable to conclude that it might be because of censorship.

But then, it is your blog and you have that right.........

keep up the good work.!

Joe said...

Bernadette

I think there is something in what you say here. From your comment on Every Child Matters, you do seem to have experience of at least one comment "disappearing". I have adjusted the "comments" settings on the blog, to see if that resolves things. All I can say is that, if you have commented and feel that it may not have "got through", just try again.

what might be useful is for me to put an explanation up if in future I reject a comment.

Anonymous said...

J. - you don`t owe anyone an explanation if their comment does not fit your ethos.. that is the beauty of the blogosphere. We are all the richer for it. It doesn`t operate by the laws of Poltical Correctness.

Bkes you and all your work.

B.