Albertus Minimus

Hello, good evening and welcome...

...to the blogroll. I've been busily adding some more links this evening, which I hope you might find interesting. In the ever expanding list of American Catholic blogs we welcome Flos Carmeli, which my poor Latin translates as the Flowers of Carmel, On the Other Foot and Quenta Nârwenion. Making a determined bid to stop the Americans taking over the Anglosphere, the Aussies add to their numbers Purcell's Chicken Voluntary (what a wonderful name!) and Winterr's Words.

Proving that I don't bear a grudge for various unfortunate misunderstandings from the Middle Ages onwards, we now have a French Catholic blogs category, with only one entry at the moment, the French language (naturelement – and if I've spelled that wrong, blame Sister Sheila) Chemins de Lecture...

Finally, venturing towards the rising sun but stopping before crossing over into its homeland, there are two South Korean Catholic blogs added to the list: Katolik Shinja and Korean Catholic's xanga site (what is a xanga site?). Welcome one and all.

New Year, new additions to the blogroll

A quick post to point you at the few new links that I've added to the blogroll. Under 'Italian Catholic Blogs' we now have Pesce Vivo, – which I think means something like the living fish – an Italian language blog with extensive links to other Italian sites. A good portal if you're looking for further information on the Church in Italy.

Secondly, there's a whole new category on the left hand side of the page, called 'Catholic Resources'. Only four entries in this at the moment, but with the potential for many more. There's Karl Keating's deservedly well-known Catholic Answers, Dr Marcellino Ambrosio's Crossroads Initiative and, of course, the Holy See. All of these you no doubt knew of before, so can I also point out to you the final link in that section, to Spero News, a reasonably international source of news and comment of interest to Catholics.

A big blogroll Willkommen...

...to two new German Catholic blogs, as recommended by the estimable Petra of (currently on hiatus) Lumen de Lumine. They are Echo Romeo, which is worth visiting even if your only word in German is Achtung! for the cartoons and art, and Catholicum, which probably does require some knowledge of German to appreciate.

Blogroll updates

When I was growing up and attending a Catholic boys' school, the favourite slang term for the school toilets was the bog. And of course, bog roll was a favoured item for throwing out of the window in a long unwinding descending path. This is just in explanation for the rather juvenile reason I always smile whenever I update my blogroll (and, lest I offend anyone, has nothing whatsoever to do with the sites linked to from here).

Anyway, digression over, there are some changes and additions to draw your attention to.

First, the Austrian Catholic blogs category has been restored after Typepad rather annoyingly removed it, with Lumen de lumine and Paxvobis as the first two sites. Petra has currently suspended 'Lumen de lumine' while she works on her dissertation, but she will be posting extracts (in English) regularly on her blog, so check back if you're as interested in 'English Catholic Literature in the 2nd Half of the 20th Century' as I am. Even if you don't speak German (and I don't) Paxvobis is worth taking a look at for one of the best laid out blogs I've seen, with some beautiful artwork and photographs.

Next, Familia matters has been added to Filippino Catholic blogs. It's in English, well worth a look for information on Asia's only Catholic country and there's a lovely Flash presentation of three beautiful children having a wonderful time on a boat.

Finally, two new entries for American Catholic blogs. A crowded field, I know, but you might be interested in the Middle-Aged Leech-Gatherer. Sadly, gathering leeches is obviously a time consuming business and he doesn't post that often (or he's busy trying to brush off the blood-suckers!) but what he does write is clever, thoughtful and often funny. As for Theocoid, I can relate to anyone born Catholic who returns to the Faith he never knew via a long and tortuous path (in his case via agnosticism, Buddhism and existentialim). Besides, Theocoid has black belts in karate and kung fu (so we know who'd win any fights among Catholic bloggers).

If you have come across any new blogs recently that you think should be added to the blogroll, particularly from countries other than the USA, please let me know in the comments or via email.

Farewell Petra

I had finally resolved tonight to do something I should have done weeks ago, and rejig the design of this blog so that Lumen de Lumine, which is sitting in with the German blogs, is given what Petra deserves: her own category of Austrian Catholic blog. Not having checked the site for a few weeks, I go and take a look only to discover that the blog has been put on hold while Petra completes her dissertation on English Catholic Literature in the 2nd Half of the 20th Century. So my apologies for taking so long to make the change that it's now academic, but I hope that Petra might post some extracts from her thesis over the months ahead, both for its own interest and because it will, I suspect, shed much light on the question of the disappearing Catholic intellectual.

Two new additions and one new country

I've added two new blogs to the roll, namely America's Sed Contra and Canada's The Sheepcat. Both are excellent and, together with Australia's Dreadnought, which is already listed provide an excellent insight into the difficulties and courage of Catholics with same sex attraction.

As to the country, you'll see that we have a 'new' Filipino blog. I had labelled Sancta Sanctis mistakenly as from New Zealand, for which I apologise to Enbrethiliel, but if anything its relocation to the Philippines makes it even more interesting. If you get the chance, I hope you'll take a look at these excellent sites.

A bout of autumn blogkeeping

As you can see, I've added another category to the side bar on the right hand of the page: Finnish Catholic blogs. At the moment it has only one entry, and I suspect that it's not likely to increase too much beyond that, but it's fascinating to have an insight into the Church in Finland (and many of the posts are in English, too). So welcome to Instaurare Omnia in Christo! To Restore All things in Christ.

And welcome also to the Commonplace Book of Zadok the Roman, the weblog of an American living in the Eternal City and generally enjoying it (and how could one not enjoy a city where - and I saw this myself - a restaurateur will tell customers who are complaining that the food is taking too long to cook to take their custom to McDonald's).

The categories have also been moved into alphabetical order, with the exception of the UK and Irish Catholic blogs which, with a display of patriotic bluster, for the moment I leave at the top of the side bar. Berenike has also rightly pointed out that one of the listed German Catholic blogs, Lumen de Lumine is in fact Austrian, and one of the Spanish Catholic blogs (Esperando nacer) is really Argentinian. The question is whether I can get away with language groups in these cases, or do you think they should really have national categories too. Ah, the quandaries of a bloggers life. Save me from my dilemma: tell me what I should do.

A new Scottish/Italian blog

The splendidly named Sundial Cloister is a new blog written by an Italian in Scotland. Well worth checking, particularly since he has some very fine photographs posted. And it reminds me that I must continue with tracking down other European blogs and posting links here.

What we did on our honeymoon

Well, apart from what you would expect, my wife and I also went to Bruges in Belgium. This came about from long standing joke that I would take her to the most boring country in the world on our honeymoon, and of course, our thoughts immediately turned to the land of chips, mayonnaise and beer. But truth to tell, we were the ones who were wrong, as we had a wonderful time. Bruges is a little pearl, a medieval town that has been spared the ravages of the centuries, surrounded by waterways, and a mysterious landscape of lush fields and small towns, the horizon pin pricked by church spires.

This is all said by way of introduction to a Belgian blog written by an Englishman. It makes for somewhat depressing reading and viewing as it documents the decline of the Faith in Europe, but there's no point in fooling oneself about the situation.

By way of balance, and because it is too easy to become disheartened about what is happening in the Old World, it would be good if anyone knows of a blog or other sources looking at some of the more hopeful things happening in Europe. If you do, I would be very grateful if you could email me with the details.

Farewell, new UK blog

I recently wrote, welcoming Mr Cornelius Fenestrifex to the small circle of UK bloggers. Sadly, he has bidden the blogosphere farewell, for it sounds as if his experience of it was somewhat unpleasant.

The blogosphere, as I have found over the past six months, contains as much envenomed pus as an unlanced boil. The expense of spirit in a waste of shame [look it up], it is being abandoned for more productive and healthy things. The hem of the garment is now withdrawn.

I hope I did not contribute to that disenchantment, sir.