We're St. Blog's Parishioners!

It's official: Catholic Video Gamers is now registered at Saint Blogs' Parish, the online Catholic blog directory! This should make it far easier for the writers and readers in the Catholic blogosphere to find us, as we'll now be listed in the St. Blog's Parish aggregator, appear in their search engine, and have an official listing in their extensive directory.

It's my hope that membership at St. Blogs' will garner some attention from faithful Catholics who, thus far, have constituted a minority of this blog's followers and readers. Catholic Video Gamers began in large part because of a perceived lack of attention for the video game entertainment medium on the part of Catholics, and the participation of St. blog's "parishioners" should remedy this; they'll be a excellent supplement to the already active voices from the gaming culture that have been reading, linking, and commenting on this blog during the past few weeks.

Glory to God in the highest! St. Vincent Kaun, pray for us and the success of this blog!

Final Thoughts on "Dante-Gate," Forgiveness, & an Apology

Quite a bit of the media circus that's pitched its tent on this blog over the past week or so has made the disparity between the Catholic doctrine of forgiveness of sins and the alleged lack of it thereof in my blog post into something of a premiere attraction. Both the combox here and some of the actual articles published by various gaming websites contained allegations that I had failed in my Christian obligation to show mercy/forgive/"turn the other cheek."

Though I did address this issue (among many others) in the combox myself, after reading Mark Shea's brilliant article on the subject today, I've come to the conclusion that I did myself and all readers a disservice when I claimed that "If EA comes out with an apology of some sort, I'll gladly extend my own olive branch." Those who accuse me of being lacking in the charity department after reading that particular comment do so with considerable merit. Whoever made the decision to perform that ludicrous stunt at EA deserves my forgiveness, even if (especially if!) they don't acknowledge their own petty wrongdoing. Rest assured, they have it. I owe everyone an apology for not doing so sooner, including EA. Mea Culpa. To the gaming journalists and combox warriors who deliberately and/or scurrilously distorted the meaning of my posting for your own ends (which, for the record, I find to be far more offensive than EA's mock-protest): this same mercy applies to you, too.

HOWEVER --- "What I have written, I have written." I offer no apologies for the tone or the content of the blog post itself, with a slight exception that perhaps my diction could have clearer (my descriptors left far too many people feeling slighted, most of whom were not the intended recipients of my comments). I think I've said enough in regards to the actual content in the comments already, so I'll let this sleeping dog lie down and die now. I hope Mark Shea's article (do take the time to read it! It's long but well worth your time!) and my subsequent apology are sufficient door-closers for the manufactured controversy centered around that particular posting once and for all. Peace and God Bless!

St. Isidore and St. Ranieri, pray for us!

Alleluia!

Frequent readers of this blog have doubtlessly noticed the dearth of postings during the past month and a half that roughly coincided with the Lenten season. Hopefully they have also noticed the recent flurry of activity that has accompanied Easter's arrival, as well!

Catholic Video Gamers welcomes two additional staffers to its ranks: Arturo Felix and Charles Harmata. Both are well versed in the technological knowledge that has allowed for the Easter renovation of the CVG webpage, and their expertise in this field is supplemented with a plethora of gaming knowledge that is, needless to say, informed by a strong Catholic faith. They'll both be posting their own introductions soon enough - stay tuned for more from each of them in the near future!

In addition to the blog's new banner and general aesthetic overhaul, CVG is now proud to announce its two patron saints: St. Isidore (being patron saint of the internet, he seemed like a natural choice for a patron of a weblog) and St. Gabriel the archangel. May their intercession guide and protect all who visit this webpage to the loving embrace of the Savior. St. Isidore and St. Gabriel the archangel, pray for us!

Finally, with the school year winding down, (all four staffers here are students), the impending summer vacation should provide ample opportunities for us all to keep CVG more frequently updated. None of us are planning to "blog-vanish" anytime soon; please keep us all in your prayers as the academic year comes to a close!

St. Apollonius the apologist, pray for us!

First Post!

"Among the wonderful technological discoveries which men of talent, especially in the present era, have made with God's help, the Church welcomes and promotes with special interest those which have a most direct relation to men's minds and which have uncovered new avenues of communicating most readily news, views and teachings of every sort. The most important of these inventions are those media which, such as the press, movies, radio, television and the like, can, of their very nature, reach and influence, not only individuals, but the very masses and the whole of human society, and thus can rightly be called the media of social communication."

"The Church recognizes that these media, if properly utilized, can be of great service to mankind, since they greatly contribute to men's entertainment and instruction as well as to the spread and support of the Kingdom of God."

- from the DECREE ON THE MEDIA OF SOCIAL COMMUNICATIONS, Inter Mirifica

Since the promulgation of Inter Mirifica in 1963, Catholics have witnessed social communication employed in ways entirely compatible with this papal decree. It was only a few decades ago that Hollywood sought to produce movies for a specifically Catholic audience; nowadays, while such explicit catering to a "Catholic" demographic is quite rare, movies produced by Catholics for a specifically Catholic audience, such as The Passion of the Christ and Therese, continue to be produced. Recent decades have brought a Catholic television network, EWTN, to a global audience. The internet contains a plethora of Catholic websites and blogs, and the written word, even when delegated to the pages of a book, continues to offer us an indispensible way to engage in the New Evangelization.

In instances where media that isn't explicitly promoting the story of a Saint or a scripture study, Catholics have still utilized these communications for the promotion of the common good. The USCCB regularly publishes movie reviews, as do websites such as decentfilms.com. Catholic print publications and online venues carry book and music reviews; some, such as Lifeteen, even cover media for a specific age group.

Yet there remains one communications medium that seems to have received the "cold shoulder" from Catholics: video games. It is for this reason that "Catholic Video Gamers" exists. "Gaming for the greater glory of God" is indeed possible (hat tip to the Jesuits for the blog's "motto"), and here is where the exploits of Catholic gamers will be recorded for all interested parties. Whether it be the discussion of specific games and their merits or commentary on the gaming "culture" at large, Catholic Video Gamers aims to find ways to "spread and promote the kingdom of God" with the video gaming medium.