24 May 2010

St Cadoc's: a parish-based blog

 St Cadoc's Church, Halfway

St Cadoc was a Welsh saint but finds himself in Scotland in a place with an intriguing name: Halfway, near Cambuslang and southeast of Glasgow, in the Diocese of Motherwell, Scotland. James Hannaway is a parishioner there and has initiated what he calls 'a fledgling blog' with the simple name of St Cadoc's.

St Cadoc

James is hoping that the parish will see the possibilities in having a blog or its own website. Pope Benedict has, on different occasions, challenged both young people and priests to use the internet to evangelise 'this digital continent'. I have no doubt whatever that St Paul, St Francis de Sales, the patron of journalists, and St Maximilian Kolbe would all be bloggers. St Maximilian is honoured by the Church primarily as a martyr but what is not so well known is that he used the press and radio, the latter still in its 'childhood', very effectively, both in his native Poland and in Japan in the 1930s to bring the Good News to as many as possible.

St Maximilian Kolbe

Sometimes I wonder if anyone reads this blog. I know there are regular readers and it is always encouraging to get feedback or a response. I firmly believe that those of us who have some ability in using the internet should harness its possibilities, not necessarily to be constantly 'preaching' but with the sense that all things can give glory to God. As St Paul says: Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him (Col 3:17).

While on home leave in Dublin in 1994 I took a short course in computers for missionaries. The missionary Sister who taught us wasn't great in terms of the 'how' but she truly inspired me with stories of how the then fledgling - I've never used that word even once in a post and here I've used it twice! - internet had helped save lives, as she saw in the African country where she had served. I have experienced that reality in my own use of the net.

Check out St Cadoc's and post a comment there.

3 comments:

Crux Fidelis said...

There is also a St Cadoc's Church in Newton Mearns on the southside of Glasgow in the Diocese of Paisley. http://www.stcadoc.org/

Fr Seán Coyle said...

Was St Cadoc, a Welshman, on a mission to the Glasgow area to teach the Scots how to play rugby?!

Admin said...

Thankyou Fr Sean for adding our new blog to your web-site. In addition, you are the first person to comment on our blog and your words are most welcome. Yes there is a Saint Cadoc's in another part of Glasgow and as you mentioned we are in the Motherwell Doicese. On the question of rugby ... I am not sure St Cadoc left us with that skill!