{"id":169,"date":"2008-12-09T08:42:09","date_gmt":"2008-12-09T08:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/apologies-for-the-lacuna.html"},"modified":"2008-12-09T08:42:09","modified_gmt":"2008-12-09T08:42:09","slug":"apologies-for-the-lacuna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/apologies-for-the-lacuna.html","title":{"rendered":"Apologies for the Lacuna"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cathedral<\/span>I haven’t posted for much of the past week, thanks to various plagues running through the house (Toddler=Petri Dish) and a family visit to New Orleans. I was hoping to post from there, but family visits being what they are…
\nIt was encouraging to see the French Quarter and the trendy neighborhoods doing weel–apparently. Lots of conventions and conferences, including one my wife was attending. But what of the rest of the city? Venture just a bit beyond the central environs and Katrina’s legacy endures. Desolation, abandoned homes and neighborhoods. The Archdiocese of New Orleans has taken a major hit, closing parishes and schools and essentially reconfiguring from the ground up<\/a> (what there is of the ground) one of the oldest Catholic communities in the U.S.
\nPre-Katrina I had been to a couple of outlying parishes that my in-laws attend, including the terrific parish of St. Joseph the Worker<\/a>. But I was able to attend mass last Sunday at the Cathedral of St. Louis<\/a>, in the French Quarter. Pretty full house at 9am, fine service, a remarkable sanctuary. You may recognize the facade as the backdrop to George Bush’s infamous post-Katrina face-saving attempt. I’d counsel visiting the church for more sacred, rather than profane, reasons.
\n\"Pitt<\/span> On the other hand, as soon as mass ended, congregants around me–most dressed in the gold-and-black of the Saints colors–started talking about the game against the Falcons that afternoon and their hopes (prayers?) that the Saints would “finally get it going,” as one lady near me said. Well, it worked. Saints won. Good game, too.
\nFinally, speaking of sacred and profane (and the two are never so comingled as in New Orleans), I’d never given Brad Pitt (nor Angelina) much credit as humanitarians, or perhaps much credit at all. That could change. A celebrity’s motivations will always be challenged, but their commitment to the city is impressive, as are the houses he is getting built. Lots of people talk, but Pitt is doing something. Check out the designs here<\/a> and here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I haven’t posted for much of the past week, thanks to various plagues running through the house (Toddler=Petri Dish) and a family visit to New Orleans. I was hoping to post from there, but family visits being what they are… It was encouraging to see the French Quarter and the trendy neighborhoods doing weel–apparently. Lots…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,7,3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholic","category-church","category-history","category-politics","category-pop-culture"],"yoast_head":"\nApologies for the Lacuna - Pontifications<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/apologies-for-the-lacuna.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Apologies for the Lacuna - Pontifications\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I haven’t posted for much of the past week, thanks to various plagues running through the house (Toddler=Petri Dish) and a family visit to New Orleans. I was hoping to post from there, but family visits being what they are… It was encouraging to see the French Quarter and the trendy neighborhoods doing weel–apparently. Lots…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/apologies-for-the-lacuna.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pontifications\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-12-09T08:42:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/pontifications\/files\/import\/imgs\/Cathedral%20St.%20Louis.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David Gibson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Apologies for the Lacuna - Pontifications","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/apologies-for-the-lacuna.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Apologies for the Lacuna - Pontifications","og_description":"I haven’t posted for much of the past week, thanks to various plagues running through the house (Toddler=Petri Dish) and a family visit to New Orleans. I was hoping to post from there, but family visits being what they are… It was encouraging to see the French Quarter and the trendy neighborhoods doing weel–apparently. Lots…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/apologies-for-the-lacuna.html","og_site_name":"Pontifications","article_published_time":"2008-12-09T08:42:09+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/pontifications\/files\/import\/imgs\/Cathedral%20St.%20Louis.jpg"}],"author":"David Gibson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/apologies-for-the-lacuna.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/apologies-for-the-lacuna.html","name":"Apologies for the Lacuna - Pontifications","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/apologies-for-the-lacuna.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/apologies-for-the-lacuna.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/pontifications\/files\/import\/imgs\/Cathedral%20St.%20Louis.jpg","datePublished":"2008-12-09T08:42:09+00:00","dateModified":"2008-12-09T08:42:09+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/#\/schema\/person\/122b0877ab87552bb8f14c366dd43e71"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/apologies-for-the-lacuna.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/apologies-for-the-lacuna.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/apologies-for-the-lacuna.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/pontifications\/files\/import\/imgs\/Cathedral%20St.%20Louis.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/pontifications\/files\/import\/imgs\/Cathedral%20St.%20Louis.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/2008\/12\/apologies-for-the-lacuna.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Apologies for the Lacuna"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/","name":"Pontifications","description":"Catholic Faith and Culture","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/#\/schema\/person\/122b0877ab87552bb8f14c366dd43e71","name":"David Gibson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/19b\/19bb39c535cd2d776c73c7941f42622cx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/19b\/19bb39c535cd2d776c73c7941f42622cx96.jpg","caption":"David Gibson"},"description":"DAVID GIBSON is an award-winning religion journalist, author, filmmaker, and a convert to Catholicism. He came by all those vocations by accident, or Providence, during a longer-than-expected sojourn in Rome in the 1980s. Gibson began his journalistic career as a walk-on sports editor and columnist at The International Courier, a small daily in Rome serving Italy's English-language community. He then found a job as a newscaster and writer across the Tiber at the English Programme at Vatican Radio, an entity he describes as a cross between NPR and Armed Forces Radio for the pope. The Jesuits who ran the radio were charitable enough to hire Gibson even though he had no radio background, could not pronounce the name \"Karol Wojtyla,\" and wasn't Catholic. Time and experience overcame all those challenges, and Gibson went on to cover dozens of John Paul II's overseas trips, including papal visits to Africa, Europe, Latin America and the United States. When Gibson returned to the United States in 1990 he returned to print journalism to cover the religion beat in his native New Jersey for two dailies. He worked first for The Record of Hackensack, and then for The Star-Ledger of New Jersey, winning the nation's top awards in religion writing at both places. In 1999 he won the Supple Religion Writer of the Year contest, and in 2000 he was chosen as the Templeton Religion Reporter of the Year. Gibson is a longtime board member of the Religion Newswriters Association and he is a contributor to ReligionLink, a service of the Religion Newswriters Foundation. Since 2003, David Gibson has been an independent writer specializing in Catholicism, religion in contemporary America, and early Christian history. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Boston Magazine, Commonweal, America, The New York Observer, Beliefnet and Religion News Service. He has produced documentaries on early Christianity for CNN and other networks and has traveled on assignment to dozens of countries, with an emphasis on reporting from Europe and the Middle East. He is a frequent television commentator and has appeared on the major cable and broadcast networks. He is also a regular speaker at conferences and seminars on Catholicism, religion in America, and journalism. Gibson's first book, The Coming Catholic Church: How the Faithful are Shaping a New American Catholicism (HarperSanFrancisco), was published in 2003 and deals with the church-wide crisis revealed by the clergy sexual abuse crisis. The book was widely hailed as a \"powerful\" and \"first-rate\" treatment of the crisis from \"an academically informed journalist of the highest caliber.\" His second book, The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World (HarperSanFrancisco), came out in 2006 and is the first full-scale treatment of the Ratzinger papacy--how it happened, who he is, and what it means for the Catholic Church. The Rule of Benedict has been praised as \"an exceptionally interesting and illuminating book\" from \"a master storyeller.\" Born and raised in New Jersey, David Gibson studied European history at Furman University in South Carolina and spent a year working on Capitol Hill before moving to Italy. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughter and is working on a book about conversion, and on several film and television projects.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/author\/dgibson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/128"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/pontifications\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}