Boston Cardinal Seán O’Malley has had a blog for three years. Now New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan has started one.

Titled “The Gospel in the Digital Age,” Archbishop Dolan began writing for the blog on Oct. 6. According to The New York Times, his postings every few days have included “war and peace, health care, abortion, charitable giving. The people he has met since taking the job six months ago. Baseball.”

He took no time in jumping into controversy. He supported fellow Bishop Thomas Tobin by posting a comment on Rep. Kennedy’s remarks attacking the Catholic Church on health care.

“The Catholic community in the United States hardly needs to be lectured to about just health care,” wrote Archbishop Dolan. We’ve been energetically into it for centuries. And we bishops have been advocating for universal health care for a long, long time.”
“All we ask is that it be just that — universal — meaning that it includes the helpless baby in the womb, the immigrant, and grandma in a hospice, and that it protects a health-care provider’s right to follow his/her own conscience.”

The efforts represent bishops’ taking seriously Christ’s message, in the technological age, to bring the Gospel to the whole world.

Notes the Times, by being online, Catholic leaders often gain an international following. While in Australia, people told Cardinal O’Malley how much they enjoyed his blog.