Voices November 09, 2023
Dividing Catholics, one podcast at a time
By Paul Schratz - Life In The Schratz Lane
To be an editor is to serve as a sounding board for everyone who has something to say about the Church, society, or the newspaper. It’s a privilege not to be taken lightly.
Phone calls, emails, and messages come in from every platform out there – including snail mail. If only they could all be turned into letters to the editor, The B.C. Catholic could fill a letters page each week.
Most submissions, unfortunately, can’t be used. Some lack clarity, or charity, while most are simply readers wanting to express their concerns to someone, passionately.
Lately, the Synod has been their concern. In fact it’s been a cause for alarm. Readers are fearful about things Pope Francis is reported to have said or done. They’re worried about statements from some bishops, especially in Europe.
What readers’ anxieties have in common is an information source that is prompting that anxiety. Unfailingly, they share a link to a podcast, video, post, or newsletter that is “Catholic” but is bounding in conflict, using labels like “travesty,” “apostasy” or the Pope’s hidden agenda.
Marshall McLuhan said “the medium is the message,” but in today’s blistering society the news source has become the message. It’s never been so crucial to consider where we’re getting the information we rely on.
Last year, on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, media took a single line from the Pope’s message of hope and joy and distorted his message into one of gloom and despair. Sadly, it’s not only secular media that are guilty. There are Catholic commenters who appear bent on presenting messages of fear, division, and conflict to the point of inaccuracy. How shameful and ironic, when in his message for World Communications Day this year Pope Francis said, “non-hostile communication is more necessary than ever.”
Francis was talking about conflicts afflicting the world, but his call for truth and love in how we communicate applies close to home as well. Readers would do well to ask themselves whether the information they’re receiving is rooted in truth and love. Or is it lacking in accuracy and compassion, stoking fear and misrepresenting the Pope?
The good news is that there are fair-minded, faithful Catholic commentators who are offering clarity by going to the original source, such as Michael Lofton’s Theology & Reason podcast. Lofton spends each segment critically examining the latest papal storm and setting the record straight, emphasizing truth and charity above all.
In recent weeks Lofton has examined purported controversies such as the Pope’s supposed openness to blessing gay unions and his reply to the synod dubia sent to him. In each case Lofton offers essential background to show how the controversy is based on misleading information, at best.
Loften is not above offering his own opinion if he believes the Pope could have shown better judgment in something he did, but as a Catholic communicator Lofton is clearly intent on a truthful, balanced approach to getting to the heart of the conflict and explaining why the Vatican is not burning and the Pope is not a heretic.
In a recent interview with Matt Fradd on Pints With Aquinas – also worth checking out – theologian Scott Hahn offered perspective for Catholics who are upset by what they’re hearing. He advised them to “calm down” and to remember, “We love Pope Francis; we don’t have to read every single word he publishes. We want to pray for him so that he is teaching with clarity.”
The Church that Christ established has endured for 2,000 years, with 265 popes, only a few of whom are saints, Hahn said, and for much of that time, people might not have even known who the current Pope was. “The Pope is not the head of the Church; he’s the vicar of Christ, and Christ alone is the head.”
Many Catholics today feel they have to “keep up with every daily release from the Vatican,” said Hahn, who calls the practice “unhealthy” and compares it to “ecclesiastical gossip and a kind of critical spirit that will invariably lead to divisions within the Church.”
Pointing out that Pope Francis’ critics overlook his many praiseworthy efforts, Hahn cited the “Philippians 4:8 Principle”: “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
Which can be summed up by this year’s World Communications Day theme: Veritatem facientes in caritate (Speaking the truth in love).