Being Catholic in Social Media (Youtube, Facebook and Twitter)

  • Thread starter Thread starter ABarillas2000
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
A

ABarillas2000

Guest
Good day Team.

A doubt has been clouding my mind for a couple of years now, and I need assistance.
I have been a devout Catholic since 2002 after having a personal encounter with Christ. I am a mass going, Holy Sacrament Worshipper, Holy Scripture reading Catholic. I listen to certain podcasts with certain priests and bishops as well as certain lay people sharing catholic ideas.

For some time I’ve seen a radical shift within the Catholic community. For argument’s sake even though is not proper I will use terms like Conservative and Liberal. These concepts, in my opinion, have no room in Catholic teaching, but it describes problems I am having.

I have met conservative Catholics and liberal Catholics. People that criticize Vatican II and people that are in favor of Vatican II. People that are full-blown traditionalists and some that are more lenient on Catholic teaching. My issue is when ONE SIDE… ATTACKS THE OTHER SIDE. I’ve seen posts where certain Catholics accuse other Catholics that they will go to hell if you do not follow certain criteria. Seeing this division in the Catholic church emotionally harms me. Drives me to depression and confusion not knowing who speaks the truth and who speaks based on lies.

How can one decern what is good and pure and what is evil and malicious? During this past week, I entered a parish where Images were not covered. I heard a Catholic say that this was wrong and that the priest would guide his flock to hell for not adhering to Holy Tradition. What could I have said? How should I react? Is this person right or wrong? That was one instance. Imagine going through a dozen like that every day. Its a miracle I am not driven mad.
 
ABarillas2000 said:
My issue is when ONE SIDE… ATTACKS THE OTHER SIDE. I’ve seen posts where certain Catholics accuse other Catholics that they will go to hell if you do not follow certain criteria. Seeing this division in the Catholic church emotionally harms me. Drives me to depression and confusion not knowing who speaks the truth and who speaks based on lies.
Click to expand...
If whatever you’re reading, listening to or following on social media is having this negative of an effect on you, then you need to quit reading, listening to or following it immediately.

Some people can handle reading about divergent viewpoints, others can’t. Those who become depressed or confused need to stop reading/ listening etc. Just walk away. Go pray instead.

If you absolutely need to respond to someone claiming someone else “will go to Hell”, then simply state the Church teaching: We here on earth have no knowledge of who will go to Hell and who won’t and who is already there and who isn’t. And leave it at that.
 
Last edited:
I have noticed the same. I used to love and follow two very well known US Catholic writers/bloggers but now one of them turned his page in a continuous political rant while the other one turned her page in a pope-bashing/lavander mafia obsession. Time to use the unfollow option.
 
Last edited:
You have to either tailor your social media experience to what suits you or cut way back on it. What you are seeing is less representative of the people in the pews and more representative of internet culture. Consider how ugly people are about politics or even sandwiches on the internet.

Life rule: never read the comments

Tinfoil hat conspiracy: If you take a break from social media, they notice your abscense because your views were a source of ad revenue. Suddenly, when you return the algorithms are showing you cute babies and all the goodness in order to lure you back into wasting more time there.
 
how to discern what is good? avoid extremes.

if someone’s opinion over a tradition or a discipline seems unreasonable to you, it most likely is.

saying that you personally prefer a certai type of liturgy or music, veiling, kneeling for communion, design of church, communion on the tongue, etC… is fine. claiming hat people who don’t do x, y, z will go to hel, or are less holy or irreverent, is wrong. The church has decreed what is apropariate in this current time and what isn’t, and it canalways change, traditions and discipline have been changing for 2000 years
 
Let the holy spirit guide you. Follow church teachings and remember that faith, hope and charity prevail. When we get caught up in the back and forth (I have at times) we lose sight of the very reason we are Catholics. To follow our Lord through the Eucharist and his saving graces to salvation, love one another, and have faith. Body, blood, soul and divinity!

God is love after all.
 
Ditching social media isn’t that radical of an idea, either. You can still access public FB pages for perusal, (although they hassle you with constant pop-ups to log in).

Social media is a habit and hard to break cold turkey. But I did it and am a happier person for it. I figured that anyone who liked me enough would find other ways to contact me. That amounted to about 3/138 Facebook, “friends” lol!!
 
This post fills my heart with so much peace. Thank you.

Thanks again for nurturing my heart. I really needed this
 
I use the “Unfollow” option in Facebook when someone starts going off in directions that are unsettling to me. Just click on the top right corner of a post (those three dots, and "Hide all posts from ", to stop this person’s posts from appearing in your timeline. Then you will not see his/her posts on a regular basis, but you remain friends = and you can still visit their “timeline” when you are in the mood to do so. The person is not aware that his/her posts no longer appear in your feeds - so they will not be upset. I do not like when anyone gets into too controversial subjects - political or religious on a regular basis. I just don’t find facebook to be a good place to discuss these types of issues. When I am talking to someone in real life, I choose different words for different audiences (or I don’t get into certain areas with certain people). But Facebook is akin to talking to everyone I know at the same time - It would be like me going to a party, and shouting my views to everyone - without being able to hear how those views are received. I’ve been doing the unfollow thing for years now - and I am much much happier. (And as I say, I will occasionally visit these people’s sites, when I brace myself ahead of time for what I may see)
 
Last edited:
ABarillas2000 said:
During this past week, I entered a parish where Images were not covered. I heard a Catholic say that this was wrong and that the priest would guide his flock to hell for not adhering to Holy Tradition. What could I have said? How should I react? Is this person right or wrong?
Click to expand...
Convert here. One of the things that attracted me to the Church is that for the RULES, everything is written down and accessible to anyone. You or I or anyone can go online and read the Canon Law, the Vatican Documents, the GIRM and RS, etc.

While there are other small “t” traditions, what is required/forbidden is not something that is up to interpretation. The Church guides her people in Faith and Morals.

When in these debates, calmly ask the person making the claim “drape the statues or burn in hell!” to direct you to the document(s) that define this doctrine or law.

And after all that, draping statues during Passiontide is a small “t” tradition.
 
You mention YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. These are self-selective platforms so you don’t have to engage with folks or viewpoints you dislike. Are you finding two sides attacking one another in Facebook groups? I’ve had to become very selective with the Catholic FB groups of which I’m a part. I’ve limited who I follow on Twitter, as well. I rarely read comments on YouTube videos – these especially become really divisive in my experience.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top