Guild of Catholic Bloggers

Shamelessly lifted from Fr Sam's blog (link below).

Yesterday was the day that the Catholic bloggers gathered in Westminster, and a great day it was too.

If you take a few minutes you will see that this blog is a blog written by a Catholic, and increasingly influenced by my faith. Most people present yesterday write what I would describe as Catholic blogs. I find these blogs inspirational as well as informative and they are a great source for any Catholic, especially someoneone increasingly looking deeper into, and exploring the reality of his faith. But equally importantly they are a wonderful source for people wanting to find the truth about Roman Catholicism rather than depending on the jaundiced, often downright hostile ramblings in the mainstream media. They are written by real people living their faith, and it was a privelege to spend time with them and to actually meet after communicating through the blogosphere for some time in most cases.

So after arrriving in London I was in time to attend the 12-30 Mass at Westminster Cathedral and to light a candle at the shrine to Blessed Pope John Paul II. An inveterate people watcher I spotted several people also in attendance who were later at the bloggers' gathering. Unfortunately my train didn't arrive early enough for me to be at the 10-30 Latin Mass, which at least one other was able to get to.

A Reluctant Sinner did a tremendous job organising the room and preparing an agenda, this on top of travelling to Rome earlier in the week for the gathering there of bloggers from all over the world, many thanks for that. However if you put a group of bloggers together in a room chairing the meeting is a little like herding cats, and the conversation meandered. But I thought the day was all the better for that and it proved incredibly informative and enjoyable not to say uplifting.

In the end we agreed on developing an umbrella blog to which  'members' will contribute as well as linking to their own blogs. I say 'members' because it looks like developing in a much more informal way than a traditional membership organisation with absolutely minimal organisational structure. Our primary role will be as a way of promoting the work of the Church and as a resource for each other and Catholic bloggers generally, whether they attend our occasional real life gatherings or prefer to communicate via the 'blogosphere'.

So a fruitful day was had by all and I'm sure all present would agree with that. But there are already two further blog posts on yesterday's event on other blogs. And here they are:

Medley Minute with Father Sam 

A Reluctant Sinner

I'm sure that more will follow and I will happily update as people blog their take on yesterday's events.