WHO IS BENNY?

I launched my religious blog just one year into the papacy of Benedict XVI, hence my moniker Benny. The Bridgebuilder bit comes from the Pope's latin title Pontifex Maximus, the Great Bridge Builder.

I wanted to comment on religious matters but wanted to keep this separate from my main blog to avoid offending some readers there.

I had been raised a Catholic in the repressive era of Pius XII (more repressive perhaps in Ireland than elsewhere in Europe). I had seen the flag of progress raised by Vatican II, in the reign of John XXXIII, and was encouraged, though I had more or less abandoned ship by then.

Then the conservatives re-asserted control leading up to the cowardly surrender by Paul VI in Humanae Vitae. After a very brief interlude with the untested Luciani Peter Sellers lookalike, John Paul I, who departed in a sudden and unexpected manner, we had a long innings with the theologically and dogmatically reactionary Polish actor, John Paul II. If that wasn't enough he was followed by the dogmatically rigid and fearful former head of the Inquisition, Benedict XVI.

So I thought it was finally time to put pen to paper, and I set up a blog called Bulls. This title was meant to convey something between a Papal Bull and the sort of speech we have today come to expect from Boris Johnson, or Bojo de Piffle as I prefer to call him.

I was gently put-putting along with Bulls when, on 18 January 2012, I was notified by Blogger that my blog had been deleted. That saga is a long story and if you're interested in technical details you can check it out here. The blog had been deleted but Benny was still in business. So I set up another blog hoping it would be temporary until I could get Bulls back.

What to call the new blog. Well, as a former altar boy I had the phrase Dominus Vobiscum ring in my ears from time to time, and as the International Eucharistic Congress was to be held in Dublin some months later I was conscious of the Holy Biscuit. So I did a mash and here we are.

Shortly afterwards Bulls was restored and I then had two holy blogs. But I had fallen for the latter, more up to date, template and decided to discontinue posting on Bulls and continue on Dominusvobiscuit.

Having lived with the name Benny the Bridgebuilder I decided to keep it.

Over time I became irritated by my crap avatar, a very fuzzy papal arms lifted off the Vatican website way back. I recently decided to do something about it but not being able to find a suitable replacement I changed tack entirely and used one of my mashups from a Dominusvobiscuit post. It was at that point that I thought I should explain the derivation of the various names. Hence this post.

If you have interests outside the religious sphere my other blogs are listed on my website.