Are You Following a Popular Narrative?!
Matthew Bellisario O.P. 2020
"Let everything be regulated by prudence which should be the rule in all our actions.”
(Saint Padre Pio)
Introduction
I find that among Catholics there is a certain narrative that people seem to follow depending on their perceived relation to the Church as a group of likeminded believers. Although you could divide Catholics into many camps, for the purpose of this article I would like to divide Catholics into 4 groups. The first being National Catholic Reporter liberal group which can be classified as totally modernist in their mindset. The second are the Catholics who fall into a neo-conservative camp who largely have a distaste for anything ultra-traditional including the Latin Mass but adhere to the Magisterium in matters of faith and morals. The third group falls into the charismatic line which often crosses over with the second group. They are also orthodox in following doctrine but seem to be heavily oriented towards apparitions, seers, and locutions. They also seem to be more emotionally driven. Finally, we have the traditionalists who heavily favor intellectual pursuit, the Latin Mass and prefer to completely ignore Vatican II. I know I could divide these groups up with finer detail but again for the sake of this article and to drive my point home in a simplified manner, let me stop here.
What Narrative Camp Are You In?
Now depending on how you see yourself, you tend to fall into the narrative that Internet personalities have created online that fall within these groups. Everyone these days has their favorites who they follow online. Twitter, Youtube and Facebook offer us a running narrative from our favorite Catholic personalities. Since I consider myself a traditional Catholic who prefers the Latin Mass then I often have looked to those online personalities who seemed to agree with me and I would take a survey to see what the prevailing opinion was on varying subjects and then adopt that position. Many of these are those which pertain to current events or controversies in the Church. Thus after doing this brief survey, the prevailing opinion of these folks often became my own. The people in the other groups do the same and thus these different groups begin to become cemented in certain opinions which often create division where there does not have to be any. Personally, I now find this type of online surveying a dangerous game to play! After having an epiphany, I have drastically cut back on watching these videos for this very reason. The experts are not really experts!
There is No Substitute For Doing Your Due Diligence Through Prayer and Study
Let me be very clear. In my opinion, there is no substitute for doing your own serious research and study of the Catholic faith and everything that surrounds it including current events. The prayer that goes along with this study and the cultivation of the virtues, especially prudence, are also essential! Watching a couple of Youtube videos by some of your favorite Catholic personalities and calling yourself an expert on the subject is not research. And please, do not send me a meme, or picture with a cut and pasted quote on it! God help us if that is our means of presenting an argument! In our day and age, everyone seems to be an expert on everything pertaining to the faith and how we should handle the crisis in the Church. In fact, most of the videos by Catholics on the Internet with any viewership have the crisis of the Church as the overarching theme. This is also why you see so much infighting among Catholics online. If you disagree with any of these narratives that each group adopts then you become an outcast to that group. For example, if you are a traditional Catholic and you have anything positive to say about a Vatican II document you are persona non grata. You are not a real Traditionalist! You have gone away from the popular narrative of that camp. You are now a neo-Conservative Catholic! If you are an NCR modernist Catholic you must hate anything associated with tradition. If you are part of the Neo-conservative Catholic camp then you cannot prefer the Latin Mass otherwise you are a rigid mean spirited person, and the list could go on. The Internet has created an artificial narrative for each group and in my opinion, it stinks to high heaven! There is no charity among this attitude.
First of all, no one is an expert on everything pertaining to the Catholic faith. It is so deep and expansive that although we can readily understand the faith in order for us to unite ourselves to Christ, few have put in the time through study and prayer to plumb the depths of the historical, theological, and spiritual wells of our faith. If you speak with true theologians they will often tell you to go to speak with another theologian who has done more research into a topic than they have for a more in-depth answer to your specific question. Moral theologians will often appeal to dogmatic theologians and vice versa if the question pertains to the other of which they have less knowledge. Yet, it seems as if every Catholic Internet personality now has infused knowledge to impart to the entire world. There are so many things that I learn through reading books that I realize how little I actually know.
I often find that a popular opinion that has been cut and posted on the internet thousands of times over is not necessarily true or is often taken out of context. This being the case I now find it is often wiser to withhold judgment on certain things of which I have no personal knowledge of rather than conforming myself to a YouTube personality who falls into my "camp." In order to truly make a judgment on something, you have to actually put the effort into doing your own study and examination of the subject by going to several sources. You must have the integrity and boldness to not only read those books and articles which you have a tendency to agree with but also those which you do not. Obviously, I am not saying that doctrinal or dogmatic teachings of the Church are up for grabs, I am talking about prudential matters most often pertaining to Church in the modern world.
Withholding Judgement is Sometimes a Virtue!
Father Garrigou Lagrange in his brilliant work on Our Lady, 'The Mother of the Saviour' spoke of how Our Lady never erred in her judgment. He also pointed out the fact that if she did not have sufficient intellectual knowledge or light to determine something she withheld her judgment or agreed only on a probability. He wrote, "She was never precipitate (prematurely) in judging; if she had not sufficient light she suspended her judgement; if she was not sure about a thing she was satisfied to affirm that it was likely or probable." Now think about this. Our Lady is the Immaculate Conception! She has a greater intellect and greater infusion of the gifts of the Holy Spirit than all other created creatures combined and yet there were times where she probably suspended judgment on something because she did not have all of the information needed to determine a judgment. If this applies in any sense to her, why do we always feel the need to pronounce a judgment about everything that comes across our table? I have been guilty of it, how about yourself?
One example I will use is the alleged Medjugorje apparitions. If you are in the charismatic camp you are almost certainly to be in favor of the apparitions. If you are in the traditionalist camp you are almost certainly to be staunchly against them. Yet how many have made their judgment on the matter based on the popular opinion given by online personalities in their "camp" (Youtube videos) who have created a narrative that must be followed? I would bet that 90% of those who are committed to one side or the other has never done any serious research into the subject. Most watched a couple of Youtube videos and talked to a couple of their friends who also are in their "camp" and they quickly settled on a judgment. They did not do any serious research. They did not pray in earnest to be enlightened about finding the truth. Instead, they conducted a half-assed popular pole from an extremely limited source base and then rashly decided what to believe.
Rather than prudently withholding judgment or actually doing their own extensive research rooted in prayer, they have taken up arms to condemn anyone who holds a contrary view to theirs. Personally, I have withheld my judgment on this particular matter until I have personally investigated the subject thoroughly and gone over it in much prayer and discernment. This article, however, does not concern my position on any given topic but is to awaken you to the fact that some of the positions you may have adopted may not have been made prudentially but were made based on a created narrative from a group that you follow on a regular basis. Remember, it is a fallacy to think that just because someone is right on many things that they are right on all things! The same goes for groups of people. Just because traditionalists as a whole may be right on many things going on in the Church does not mean that they have everything right going on in the Church. Even Saint Vincent Ferrer for a time followed the wrong pope!
Conclusion
In closing, I want to reiterate that there are some things you can withhold your judgment on until you can conduct your own investigation on the subject. You do not have to follow a created narrative based on the popular opinion of the internet personalities that seem to agree with your line of thinking. As my good friend Monsignor used to tell me, paraphrasing "You must investigate things for yourself... Conduct your own investigation." The lesson for the day is: 'Do your own research rooted in prayer and prudence rather than follow the popular narrative that is created for you!' Ask Our Lord and Our Lady to help you to learn the truth of things and don't feel you have to always make a judgment quickly without proper discernment. When someone asks you your opinion on something do you truly know something about it or are you passing along a popular narrative that you have been fed? Remember, you are also responsible before God for giving someone advice of which you are not really qualified to give. You can also take this a step further. If you are following a narrative in Catholic circles you are probably following one in other circles as well. Just food for thought!
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