Fr. Catfish evangelizes on the Internet

Leduc pastor's website offers insights on Batman, Star Wars

By RAMON GONZALEZ
WCR Staff Writer
Leduc

Need some theological updating or want to hear an inspiring homily right where you are? Log on to www.fathercatfish.com, the website of Father Michael Mireau, the colourful pastor of St. Michael's Parish in Leduc.

There you can view his latest homilies, some of his best term papers, critiques and theological analyses as well as reflections on heaven, the Latin Mass and treatises on Superman, Batman and Star Wars.

The site also contains lots of pictures, including photos of weddings, baptisms and special events. Even the priest's credentials are posted on this user-friendly site.

Mireau is the only priest in the archdiocese known to have his own website. "I wanted to reach the audience that isn't coming to Church, which is the majority of Catholics," he said in a recent interview.

"I wanted to bring the Gospel to them where they are and a lot of them are on the Internet."

The website is open "to everyone and anyone who is interested," said Mireau, although he is primarily thinking of younger people. "My homilies in general tend to be very compatible with young people. They like them so I want to make them available to them."

Homilies posted on the site include Doggie Dinner, God Sure Knows How to Make Something Suck, Sleepless in Toronto, Treasure Quest and Just Keep Swimming. They are all funny, insightful and meaningful.

Fr. Michael Mireau

"To be honest, my hope is to get it (the homilies) in classrooms - religion classes - so that students there can get an opportunity to see them and religion teachers will have an extra resource - to put the homily on the big screen and to have some discussion questions for them."

Homilies for schools

Mireau hasn't yet talked to schools about the project because he is having "some technical difficulties" with the video player he is currently using.

Once the priest gets a new video player and irons out those problems, he expects to be able to send schools his weekly homily.

The website contains several term papers and reflections that Mireau believes could be useful to high school students and even theology students. Some of the titles are History of the Entire Universe, Physics and Faith, Practical Issues in Youth Ministry, Existentialism, St. Augustine: The Main Components of His Thought and God is Love: Theological Synthesis.

"I tried to put my best ones on there," Mireau said of the papers, most of which he wrote while studying for the priesthood at St. Joseph Seminary. "I'm very proud of these ones, yeah. That's why I put them on there."

Dogs in heaven

In his Frequently Asked Questions section, Mireau answers the perennial question, Do dogs go to heaven? Which is his way to get into the deeper question: Do people go to heaven?

He also offers elaborate analyses on Superman and Batman, which he describes as Christian symbols.

"Superman is symbolic of the ultimate hero which is Jesus Christ," he said. "He has amazing abilities and has many things in common with Jesus Christ. Batman, on the other hand, is sort of a character that comes out of human weakness building himself up into kind of a Christian. So there are a lot of similarities between the two of them."

Mireau recently included in his website an analysis on Star Wars, which he describes as "cool" because it is a universal story and in some way it is his story.

"It's about learning to forgive our parents for not being perfect," he writes in the conclusion. "It's about knowing that the universe around us cares about us apparently insignificant vapour farmers on the far reaches of creation.

"It's about the hero journey inside of all of us, springing us into a life of excitement and romance, turmoil and frustration, integration and peace."

So far reaction to the website has been "light" because, as Mireau put it, "not too many people know about it yet."

Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 -- Western Catholic Reporter