Dorian Speed is discussing the goals and future of the Catholic Arts, spurred in part by a provocative article at OSV weekly.  This speaks to the heart of our mission at The Catholic Writers Guild.  I’d like to open the discussion here with a few comments of my own, and then invite you to join the conversation either here or at your own place.

1.  I couldn’t agree more with the need for Catholic writers and artists to produce top-quality work, as Ellen Gable mentioned here yesterday.

I’m 100% in support of amateurs — completely in agreement with GKC, “Anything worth doing is worth doing badly.”  Story of my life.   It’s important not to lay into the enthusiast with a website or a blog or a stall at the craft fair, who is following a passion, however humbly.

But it behooves us in the same humility to not call something a masterpiece unless it is, in fact, a work worthy of the name.

2.  I take issue with this quote in the OSV article:

Right now 90 percent of what we do is geared toward catechesis and 10 percent to evangelization. It needs to be the other way around.

My reason for disagreeing is this:  I think as a Church we are very poorly catechized.   Basic messages like, “You need to attend Mass every Sunday,” or “This is how you make a good Confession,” are no longer settled into the Catholic popular conscience.  I see the fruits of bad catechesis in people catechized even fifty or seventy years ago.  The travesty of the American church in the 1970’s and 1980’s didn’t come out of nowhere.

Yes, evangelization.  I get it.  Important.  But without solid catechesis, evangelization is DOA.  The two are in no way opposed.

3.  It’s hard to be Catholic in the arts today.  Frankly, as a Catholic parent I’ve steered my children away from theater and dance, and towards music, for the simple reason that I don’t want my daughters being pressured to perform in roles that are utterly contrary to purity and decent behavior.  I am thrilled therefore to see a growing number of initiatives to provide performing arts education in a truly Catholic environment.

4.  It’s all Catholic. One of the troubles we have in discussing the “Catholic Arts”, is that anything true, beautiful and good is Catholic.  End of story.

5.  But there’s a place for overtly Catholic-y stuff.  Regina Doman said it passionately at the CWCO one year, and I wish I had the text of her talk to quote here.  It is normal that we Catholics would love our Catholic stuff.  Why shouldn’t we want stories with priests and nuns and saints?  Why shouldn’t we love to see a good character fight the good fight, and draw on his faith in the process?  We aren’t too cool for that stuff.

It’s a small market, I know.  But I am very grateful to the many Catholic artists who are making the sacrifice to write and produce overtly pious works for those of us who find them edifying and enjoyable.

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Those are my thoughts — how about you?  Here at the CWG, our small part in the work of renewing the Catholic arts is to provide training and support for everything that is Catholic writing and publishing, whether the artist is working in “Catholic” genres or in the wider publishing community.  So this discussion is at the core of who we are and what we do.  I’m interested to hear your thoughts.

Three ways to share:

1. Leave a comment in the combox.
2. Write a post at your place, and leave a link here in the comments.
3. If you’re a member of the CWG and would like to write a guest post that furthers the discussion, write it up and submit.

This topic will never grow old.   Let’s help each other refine our focus as we discern how God is calling us to grow as artists in this particular time and place He’s given us.

UPDATE:  I was reminded in the combox of this recent column by Simcha Fisher at the Register, without which our discussion would be incomplete.