The Deacon Project - Deacon Bill Maksymiec

 

Deacon Bill Maksymiec was ordained in 2013 by Cardinal Wuerl.  Currently, he is assigned to the Church of the Annunciation in DC.

As you can see that he does have an account, but it has been dormant for a few years. 

 

 

The Deacon Project - Arch. of Washington (Part Two)

Yesterday, I wrote about how surprised I was at the fact that Catholic Deacons were commenting on TWITTER, criticizing priests who supported President Trump. And, let's not talk about what they said about +Vigano.

Having seen this over the last few months, I decided to take a little time and carry out what I like to call The Deacon Project.

The Deacon Project was my attempt, on a small and limited scale, to see how widespread this sort of criticism -- both mild and sharp -- not simply of the President but of what might be called "conservative" clergy and commentators.

So, how did I do this?  

Well, I searched TWITTER for all of the active Roman Catholic Deacons in the Archdiocese of Washington DC.  I did not look at retired Deacons.

In addition, I did not do some sort of in depth, deep dive search.  I search a couple of different ways and think I found most of them.

So what did I find.

First, almost all active Roman Catholic Deacons in the Archdiocese of Washington do not have a Twitter account.

Second, a few (very few) Roman Catholic Deacons in the Archdiocese of Washington have accounts but they don't seem to be active.

Third, there are one or two who have active accounts.  

The Deacon Project - Arch. of Washington will take a look at these Deacons.

The Deacon Project - Arch. of Washington (Part One)

Over the last few months, I have spent a great deal of time on TWITTER.  

I swore that I would not, but I did.  I have sinned.

While on TWITTER, you could not help to notice a number of trends. 

Now, for those of you on TWITTER, the trends are not simply what people are hash-tagging, but who says what and how they respond to them.

For a while, there were a number of priests who came out against Joe Biden and were attacked for it. Some of these were posts on TWITTER and some were postings from homilies on YouTube.

Of those who attacked/criticized these priests:

• Some accused these priests of suffering anxiety and or depression due to the COVID aka Wuhan Virus lock down.  
• Some accused them of playing politics. 
• Some accused them of not looking at "the seamless cloth" of social justice issues.  
  

The question is: Who conducted the attacks/criticism?

• Many were just regular pew sitters.  Catholics like you and me.
• Some were laity, who are actively involved in the Church.  Some paid by Catholic organizations, others who make their living dealing with various Church issues.
  
• Some were folks that were probably/most likely not Catholic, but decided to have their say. 
• Some are well known figures in the Catholic Church.

However, there were two groups that surprised me.  

The first group were Catholic "journalists and media" types.  And I will touch more about that in another posting, much later. 

The second group which really surprised me were Catholic Deacons.  Some were mildly critical, some were very sharp but veiled in their attacks/criticism.

Again, some of these were well known and some were not.  And so that lead me to decide to take upon myself what I like to call:

The Deacon Project

To be continued...