Any satellite radio subscribers out there? I’m not–yet–but I’ve been on the Catholic Channel on Sirius Radio a couple of times, mainly with Fr. Dave Dwyer and the Busted Halo crew, who are probably more my speed than the channel’s lead personality (well, after Cardinal Egan–“And now, a word from our sponsor…”), the inimitable Lino Rulli. Actually, he may be the imitator, rather than inimitable–or a channeler. Rulli (in this NYT photo) is “The Catholic Guy,” sort of the church’s answer to Don Imus, if there is an answer to Don Imus. Or if we even know the question.
Rulli’s guiding lights, according to this New York Times profile, are David Letterman, John Paul II and “the only genius in radio,” Howard Stern.
Check it out, and a money quote (well, pocket change) from yours truly:

David Gibson, a Catholic writer whose book “The Coming Catholic Church” describes a newly powerful grass-roots pressure for reform in the aftermath of the priest sexual abuse scandal, said the archdiocesan foray into talk radio may reflect some official acknowledgment of the need for a new, more interactive relationship with believers.
“The church really has no choice,” he said. “The old Catholic world, where you were born and married in the church and stayed because you were part of a ‘Catholic world’ — that’s gone. The church has to find people and make them want to be Catholic.”

So can these two worlds coexist? John Paul and Howard Stern? Can they feed off each other? Or must they conflict?