The Synod and the Media

We are being given yet another reminder that the Holy Spirit is, without a doubt, unquestionably steering and protecting the Church, because, as per usual, there's no other way to explain how this is all being held together.

I want to comment on one aspect of the Synod as a guy "in the trenches" who has actual real life parishioners who are asking really key questions about what is going on in the Synod because the topics of the Synod are VERY important to them in their situations in life.

The Synod has two things going on with regards to the media, and the fact that both are happening at the same time is, in my mind, highly problematic.

1) No one is allowed to know what is actually being said in the discussions themselves

2) Attendees of the Synod are being encouraged to talk with the media

For the sake of the people I minister to, I hope one or both of these change, and here's why:

We are currently relying on a telephone game to get the word out on the Synod, and the telephone currently has two relayers - 

1) Anonymous Synod attendees

2) Media folks

I challenge anyone to please draw up a more disastrous way to have news about the Synod trickle down to the average lay Catholic.

The most disturbing tweet I've seen on this entire Synod is the following:

+Filoni says there was some “surprise” in his small group about mid-term report and “perplexity” about media coverage #Synod14
— Catholic News Svc (@CatholicNewsSvc) October 14, 2014

So let's recap:
1) We have the media telling our story for us
2) We can't fact check the spin because we aren't releasing what actually is being said
3) We have bishops that are surprised that the media isn't getting it right


*Insert face into open palms*

I would have thought, after the Humanae Vitae rollout debacle (that we're still dealing with), we would have learned our lesson about letting anonymous sources and the media get the "truth" out.


But again, on a positive note, we are left with yet another reminder that the Holy Spirit is definitely steering this ship, because if the Catholic Church wasn't being protected by God, it would have surely sunk by now.