At first, it seems obvious that we shouldn't advertise evil. Open and shut case. It becomes complicated in my opinion as we should condemn evil in our world and maybe alert people to evil, but how do we do so without making things worse?
I think there is definitely a balance, but how does one achieve this balance? Often I see Catholic news agencies or commentators bringing up evils that are happening in the world. These can include a general direction in which the country is headed or it could be a particular news story which features evil themes. Even this blog has delved into many of these topics. Is this wrong?
Another issue is giving voice to heretical and blasphemous religious figures including priests, and bishops. What should be done here. Again it's about balance.
I think all too often we err on the side of providing too much information as opposed to too little. I think when it comes to discussing issues of morality that are presented in the news, we should strive to the greatest degree we can to minimize the unnecessary specifics of what is occurring. Often things may not even really need to be reported at all. The question needs to be asked: who is this information helping?
Will the information being presented increase or decrease evil? It's a legitimate question. As Catholics, we should not spend a great deal of time thinking about and understanding evil. There is in fact a sin associated with this desire to know things which we ought not pursue. Thomas Aquinas simply calls it curiosity. It's the idea of delving too deeply into topics of evil.
I am speaking about this because it is such a prevalent issue. Evil is continually reported on many Catholic media outfits. I get it. Evil things and events get headlines. I'm not saying they shouldn't be reported. If the government is doing something evil, we should know about it. But often, the information isn't of value to the public and will help almost no one who finds out about it.
A similar idea is promoting heretical, blasphemous or otherwise dangerous clergy. Why give them a platform at all? That's what they crave. They don't care about the bad publicity, they just want publicity. Anything a conservative Catholic may say against them just gets chalked up to "hate" and they dismiss it. You aren't changing their minds. I think in these cases it's best to just ignore them. If no one knows about them, they cannot do damage.
Conservative media are often complicit, in my opinion, in promoting evil in the guise of exposing it. Someone does something immoral or blasphemous which probably would have never been known, but the conservative media uses it to condemn the way things are or are going. The intention is probably good, but I think overall it has a bad impact. Most of the "shocking" things reported by conservative media would probably be ignored by the rest of the media. I mean they don't themselves to look bad either. So if the conservative media doesn't report it, no one will, which will be much better.
The same goes for public figures who do and say evil things. Instead of promoting them by writing articles and publishing news stories, we should just ignore them. If they are ignored by faithful Catholics, probably no one will pay attention to them. They get pumped up because we spend so much time reporting on them.
Again, it's about balance. If we are reporting that Joe Biden has increased access to abortion, that isn't exactly a secret. That should be reported. The same goes for many things. I guess overall I would just ask people to consider the impact what they are writing has - is it good or bad?
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