Background and Biography

A Catholic Priest Portraying "Jean Valjean with a Lightsaber"

            Like all Catholic priests, I have a background in philosophy and theology.  Yet, reaching even further back, I have a background in Star Wars, Marvel Comics, and the Seattle Grunge Movement.  In my college years, I began to read the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, which had a profound effect on me, awakening a deep appreciation of the power of story to offer profound insights about reality, such that the story itself serves as a sort of companion for our own journey.  Meanwhile, my friendship with many musicians over the years helped me to deepen my appreciation of the same kind of value within song. 

Meanwhile, I’ve always considered myself a little bit “low culture” and found a beautiful irony in the surprising degree of value that can be found in what so many regard as mere entertainment.  This all made me more than slightly interested when I heard that some of the seminarians at the theology school I would be attending had begun something called a “pop culture symposium”.  Having been heavily involved in this throughout seminary, in my first years of priesthood I found myself giving my youth group presentations similar to those I gave at the symposiums in seminary, using glimpses of truth, goodness, and beauty in pop culture as a means to talk about deeper themes. 

Once I began doing college ministry at St. John’s Catholic Newman Center at the University of Illinois, one of my brother-priests who was also involved in the symposiums in seminary encouraged me to consider holding an entire symposium at U of I, with students involved giving presentations, as well as myself.  In brainstorming together with students, I was asked to describe what the vision for the symposium would be.  I explained how I had come to understand it, after a couple years of involvement in seminary: a way of learning to listen to the heart of the culture, for the sake of helping facilitate an encounter and dialogue with the Heart of God.  It was one of the students involved who made the connection between this and the motto of the patron of every Newman Center, Bl. John Henry Newman: “Heart Speaks Unto Heart.”  The planning process moved forward and the first Heart Speaking to Heart Symposium was held in April 2015.  I continued to post from my next home in Peoria, IL, where I served both Saint Mark Parish and Saint Joseph Newman Center at Bradley University.  The mission continued into my early years serving at St. Louis Catholic Church, in Princeton, IL.  Regular posting on the blog was indefinitely suspended at the end of 2019, a decision that was explained in the September 2019 post. 

The vision for this blog is the same as that of the Heart Speaking to Heart Symposium: “Learning to Listen…”  My three basic goals are as follows:

1)      To take an authentically critical approach to discussing elements of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty in pop culture, from a Catholic-Christian perspective, but hopefully in a way that will be engaging for people of various backgrounds (more about my approach here).

2)      To comment on (relatively) current works and phenomena in pop-culture

3)      To post every other month

It is my hope that people of all backgrounds would join in the discussion.

- Fr. Daniel Gifford