Archdiocese limits access to critics’ blogs

The Archdiocese of Boston, under attack by anonymous conservative Catholic bloggers, has blocked access to one of the websites from computers within the church’s Braintree headquarters.

The Boston Catholic Insider, the most lively of several blogs that have targeted the archdiocese, portrays Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley as a lax administrator and accuses his top aides of straying from Catholic doctrine and values.

Terrence C. Donilon, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said church officials blocked the site because it had become a distraction, not out of a desire to squelch debate. Its authors, he said, were “actively spamming the employees of the archdiocese with links to the site, interfering with their work day.’’ He pointed out that employees could still visit it from their home computers.

The Insider authors, in a post after the archdiocese blocked the site, characterized their blog as constructive criticism and chided church officials for trying to limit access to it.

“Is the mere prospect of archdiocesan employees reading this blog concerning to Boston’s archdiocesan leadership in a similar way that leaders of Communist China are concerned about Chinese citizens reading about the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests?’’ they wrote.

The blogs are a departure from the usual attacks against the church because they offer a conservative critique of the local hierarchy. The archdiocese is more accustomed to fielding complaints from those pushing for a liberalization of church teachings on issues like the role of women, or from people who want the church to become more democratic.

They are also unusual because they are directed at O’Malley, who is widely viewed as a back-to-basics Catholic leader. He wears the brown habit of his Capuchin Franciscan order, enjoys warm relations with Pope Benedict XVI, and at times has drawn criticism from the left.

But the bloggers on the blocked site see a distinction between the cardinal’s spiritual leadership and his administrative abilities — they say they respect him as a man of faith but have concerns about his ability to oversee his underlings.

Donilon declined to answer specific questions about the Insider’s criticisms of O’Malley and the archdiocese’s strategy for dealing with the bloggers because the blogs’ authors refused to identify themselves.

But he said in a statement: “Cardinal O’Malley and his staff are dedicated to building unity in Christ and Christian community within the archdiocese. Toward that end, we have reached out to bloggers on numerous occasions to ask them to enter into a professional and Christ-centered conversation with us. We are concerned about the harm caused to individuals and to the community by anonymous and unfounded claims on the blogs.’’

The bloggers behind the Insider and another anonymous blog critical of the archdiocese, in e-mail interviews and posts, say they have brought many of their concerns directly to archdiocesan officials in the past, to no avail.

They say they consider themselves whistle-blowers and fear repercussions in their jobs and parishes if they identify themselves.

The second anonymous blog is dedicated largely to a critique of Rev. J. Bryan Hehir, O’Malley’s secretary of social services. It accuses him of departing from Catholic doctrine in speaking engagements and interviews on a variety of issues, particularly relating to sexuality and abortion.

The blog appears to be written by a team of anonymous contributors. In an e-mailed response to Globe questions last month, the authors of that blog described themselves as “faithful Roman Catholics who are trying to protect the good of the Catholic Church.’’

“Many Roman Catholics feel that the dissent and moral corruption in the Boston Archdiocese is getting out of control and are deeply concerned about communication of the faith to the current generation of Catholics, as well as passing on the Catholic faith to the next generation of Catholics,’’ the bloggers wrote.

Still another blog that is often critical of both Hehir and the archdiocese is written by Carol McKinley, an antiabortion activist and longtime blogger. In an interview, she said the writers of the various blogs regularly confer on strategy, which she described as an effort to get the complaints “publicly logged in one place so that it’s nationally recognized’’ and wrongdoers disciplined or replaced.

The Boston Catholic Insider focuses on what its authors consider to be conflicts of interest, cronyism, and a focus by the archdiocese on financial interests over religious priorities at the archdiocese; it is particularly critical of James P. McDonough, chancellor of the archdiocese.

Confidential information that has appeared on the Insider — specific employees’ salaries, for example — suggests that some of the contributors may work for the church. The archdiocese’s decision to block access to the Insider came after a series of posts alleging conflicts of interest in the proposed sale of Caritas Health Care, the Boston Catholic hospital chain, to Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity firm.

Disputing Donilon’s assertion that they were “spamming’’ employees, the Insider’s authors said they had not sent any mass e-mails to archdiocesan employees since July 8. Donilon said that some priests and archdiocesan employees had received unwanted e-mails from the bloggers.

In a telephone interview, one of the Insider bloggers, who uses the pseudonym Jim Franklin (after the Colonial-era printer and older brother of Benjamin Franklin), said the bloggers consisted of roughly a half-dozen writers. He said they relied on a larger pool of tipsters and that their goal was to improve the archdiocese’s financial, administrative, and doctrinal practices.

“The Internet has made it possible to air things that are usually kept under wraps,’’ he said. “My greatest joy would be if they would just fix all this stuff, and there was no need for the blog.’’

The archdiocese has clearly agonized over how to handle the blogs. Church officials ignored them at first; but as the critiques grew sharper, they began to address them directly.

Last month, the Rev. Richard Erikson, vicar general of the archdiocese, scolded the authors of the anonymous blog targeting Hehir for their “disrespectful, discourteous and inaccurate attacks’’ and called their disparagement of Hehir “inappropriate and cruel.’’ Erikson asked to meet with the blog’s authors in person, but after a back-and-forth about the purpose of the meeting and what Erikson’s specific complaints were, the bloggers did not come forward.

Clay Shirky, who teaches at New York University and has written several books about the social effects of the Internet, said the church’s purpose in blocking the Insider was probably to tamp down skepticism of officials; if so, he said, it was “smart, in Machiavellian terms,’’ even if it is impossible to prevent employees from reading it elsewhere.

“By preventing the employees from reading those posts all at the same time, and while at work . . . they can defuse the reaction to it,’’ he said.

SIC: BNCom