Here Comes Everybody Chapter 6

Here is where things stand for Voices of the faithful, according to Boston Globe article from early July, 2009 and late July, 2009.  If the group gained about 25,000 members in a few months of 2002, and this year it has the names of about 35,000 in its database, I think it is safe to say the group has cooled off a little.  Despite financial problems, it does still exist, which is an accomplishment in itself, when its membership is made up of people in the Catholic Church, and the church doesn't like Voices of the Faithful.  If Voices of the faithful does have to give up its offices at some point, that could be seen as a more pure test of its ability to use social media.

On Page 146, Shirky leaves out some other causes for expanded outrage at the Goeghan case:  Between 1992 and 2002, there had been a steady drumbeat of allegations, settled lawsuits, and criminal charges, involving allegations of abuse by priests.  One case can be an aberration, but I know some Catholics who got upset when it happened repeatedly, and when it appeared higher-ups in the church transfered the priests, rather than going to the police with their suspicions.

On page 153, I wonder if anyone would have found out about the documents description of the Boston church's knowledge of Goeghan's actions, if the Globe had not pursued the documents, possibly hiring legal representation, and spent the time to read through them.  A similar cache of church abuse documents from the Bridgeport Diocese has been kept sealed since approximately the time of the Globe's 2002 article, while the church appealed to the state Supreme Court twice, and the US Supreme Court once.  Very few bloggers could afford to take a case to the US Supreme Court, and most would have given up years ago.

On page 156, Shirky writes "Some new and stable arrangement will eventually be found, as it was after martin Luther, but whatever it is, the one option that it won't include is a return to the days of a subdivided and disorganized laity."  But social media might contribute a form of division in this regard.  Many of the people who go to mass on a weekly basis in many Catholic churches are older than the average person, and therefore less likely than average to have e-mail, a Facebook account, or access to a range of digital communications technologies.  A group like Voices of the Faithful could be divided between those who have computers and internet access, and those who do not.  At the least, it would have to replicate everything it does online in newsletters, for potential members who are not online.  Shirky mentions that the Catholic Church has dealt with change before, like the invention of print, and a bible that the laity could read themselves.  Voices of the Faithful may have a small presence on Facebook, but the church is adapting to social media as well.  Locally, the Archdiocese of Hartford is on Facebook, too.