O'Malley recounts 'lol' on his Rome trip blog
Cardinal reaches out to Internet generation
He has spiced his entries with ``lol," Internet slang for ``laughing out loud," posted snapshots of himself pointing at a roadside pizza stand and checking his cellphone for voice mail , and written about the warm soda he downed in a cheap Italian restaurant.
Launching his blog on a trip to Rome, Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley sounds at times more like a college student making his first trip to Europe than a prince of the church. Jokey and informal, the archbishop of Boston is trying his best to reach out to a generation of Catholics hooked on e-mail , instant messaging, and MySpace .
``We stopped at what I call an `Italian Howard Johnson's' which is sort a combination of
Later he teases his readers with tales of his days as a young seminarian in Germany.
``I have many fond memories of those days in the early 1960's," O'Malley wrote. ``I will share with you, believe it or not, that I and everyone else were wearing lederhosen in those days . . . but, do not try to find those pictures because I assure you that the negatives have been destroyed. . . . LOL!"
Catholics and blog specialists are taking notice, offering praise for a blog they say is surprisingly readable.
Looking and sounding like any tourist on a budget, O'Malley is shown on the blog wandering about Rome, marveling at marble statuary, browsing through kiosks, posing for photos with friends, and giving shout-outs to his family members. Since he launched the website last week, he has received 9,000 visitors, 65,585 page views, and scores of comments.
``I'd like to say hello to my sister, Mary, and my entire family," O'Malley wrote on cardinalseansblog.org . ``I've heard that my sister plans on reading my blog."
The medium has forced O'Malley to walk a fine line between the dignity his position requires and the irreverence that fuels many of the most successful blogs. In his posting, he has occupied both roles -- writing, for example, about the symbolism of the Franciscan coat-of-arms and about the food he eats.
On Sunday morning, he wrote, ``I got up at about 7:30 and at about 8 o'clock there were booming fireworks going off outside of my window . . . lol."
Readers are responding.
``Wow, those pictures are awesome!" wrote Peter Skipper , a student at Boston College High School, praising a photo of the Church of the Gesu in Rome. ``Cardinal Sean, you rock. Honestly, you're the coolest cardinal in the whole church."
``What a gift it has been to read your blog," wrote another fan, Debbie P. ``I sent it out to our Catholic home schooling group. It's a great way for the kids to experience Rome and the Vatican. I just love your LOL's."
Sandeep Junnarkar, a professor at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism, said 9,000 visitors for a new blog is ``not bad."
``The thing to watch is whether this is just a curiosity factor -- people checking in and seeing what it's about -- or whether you're going to see the traffic keep increasing," Junnarkar said.
Some specialists were pleased.
``I like it, I have to say," said Angela Morgenstern, 31, a digital media producer who has worked for MTV and PBS. ``It really does make an effort to bring transparency to the process, so the photos on the site include a photo of his driver, and the cardinal checking his voice mail messages in the morning, and looking pensive and serious in the wings before he goes to celebrate Mass. I give them credit for trying to use the medium in the way it was intended, and also the tone of his writing is really accessible."
Kevin Shea, archdiocesan spokesman, said O'Malley has not decided whether he will continue the blog when he returns from Rome next week. But O'Malley said he is getting a kick out of it.
``I have enjoyed working on the blog, even though it takes a bit of time," he wrote Monday. ``I also think it's amusing in a way because I feel like I'm on some reality television show on MTV . . . lol."
