Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley, who wears a friar's habit designed nearly 500 years ago and who eschews most material possessions, today is taking a giant leap into the 21st century: He is becoming a blogger.
Following the lead of numerous political, entertainment, and sports figures who are flirting with new communication media in an effort to reach the public, O'Malley is planning to file items at least once a day during a 10-day trip to Rome that begins today and will consider making the blog permanent, depending on how the experiment goes.
``I am . . . looking forward to a new opportunity to communicate directly with Catholics of the archdiocese through my own blog," O'Malley, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Boston, said in a statement yesterday. ``While this is a new venture for me and for the archdiocese, I am eager to take advantage of the latest technology and mode of communication to share with Catholics of the archdiocese my experiences as I return to Rome and, more importantly, to share with everyone a sense of what it is that Boston's archbishop does on business in Rome representing the people of the archdiocese."
O'Malley is traveling to Rome primarily for a ceremony associated with his new status as a cardinal: On Oct. 1, he will formally take possession of his titular church, Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome. O'Malley will have nominal administrative and financial oversight of the church, which is famous as the home of a provocative Bernini statue and as the setting for a particularly gruesome scene in the Dan Brown novel, ``Angels and Demons."
O'Malley will also be presiding at a Mass on Sept. 23 in San Giovanni Rotondo, in southeastern Italy, honoring Padre Pio, an Italian saint who, like O'Malley, was a Capuchin Franciscan friar.
The link: www.cardinalseansblog.org.
You can bet I'll be a regular reader.
