Be Aware of the Spiritual Dangers on X
If you seek humility, X is not the place to find it.
If you follow my X account, you will notice that I rarely post anything directly, my substack and podcast links excepted. I do tweet at other times but not every day. Obviously, this is the exception of retweets and likes.
I realize to prove myself right or another person wrong in regards to Church teaching can spiritually compromise me.
X along with other social media platforms is filled with Catholics who need to prove things. They will stand on Church teaching from whatever century to promote their position that Pope Francis was a heretic, most people are going to Hell and God’s mercy must not be presumed.
To what spiritual benefit
What is the spiritual benefit to them or anyone else for making these pronouncements?
Many turn all kinds of colors when you mention a legitimate form of ministry: Pastoral Theology. This takes revealed truth and communicates in a way that leads someone to live it.
When I was in the Navy, I was fascinated to watch as a ship moored to a pier. The captain would command a slight turn of the screws one way and then another. This big ship needed to be gently moved to moor correctly. When the gentle moves did not happen, and I saw that too, the big ship could take out the pier, take out another ship or something else. I once watched our ship take out ten pilings on a pier in an attempt to get underway.
Helping Catholics to understand how to live the faith in their lives can be a spiritual operation of gently moving a big ship away from the pier of textbook answers.
Pastoral Theology
Pastoral theology takes the powerful truth and helps someone understand it as it relates to their lives. There is no place in that conversation for teaching some pope’s proclamations from the first millennium. Why? The person is not in a position to fully understand or embrace them.
The declaration may not even apply anymore. Let’s look at it another way.
One example, many will cite the demands of the Church in the teachings of Humanae Vitae. Further, they will condemn the use of Natural Family Planning except for the most extreme situations. They will cite the Church’s encyclicals, especially Humanae Vitae and Casti Cannubi and they will condemn others for following NFP claiming this is what the Church teaches.
In a sense, it is what the Church teaches. However, there is so much more. In paragraph 29 of Humanae Vitae Pope St. Paul VI wrote that such pronouncements are void of the spirit of the teaching.
The sainted pontiff understood that for many couples the Church’s teaching on contraception would be intensely difficult. He did not back off from it but neither did he dismiss their struggle.
Teach married couples the necessary way of prayer and prepare them to approach more often with great faith the Sacraments of the Eucharist and of Penance. Let them never lose heart because of their weakness.
Is this is what many teach on X? Is this the spirit of their social media words? Not from what I can see.
How much tolerance and mercy are you finding on X in many Catholic circles? There is condemnation, there are harsh words but tolerance and mercy? I am not so sure. However, that is as much as the demand of the teaching in Humanae Vitae than the words on procreation.
Now it is an outstanding manifestation of charity toward souls to omit nothing from the saving doctrine of Christ; but this must always be joined with tolerance and charity, as Christ Himself showed in His conversations and dealings with men.
That paragraph is a great example of the demand of pastoral ministry. Help people understand what the Church teaches in a way that does not condemn Catholics or make them feel condemned but invites them to see more the ways of Christ.
The same with pastoral theology. I see people on X declaring one theological pronouncement after another and never invite people to an encounter with Christ. However, it is the encounter with Christ that is the first step in our faith. If you don’t teach that first, then when you make theological pronouncements, they will be met with resistance or even anger. I see this on X all the time. Person A makes a theological pronouncement against person B’s tweet. Person B responds trying to prove person A incorrect. Person A responds back with a perjorative, where as person C adds his two cents and so it continues. How does any of this draw someone to Christ?
The best position is to keep out of theological arguments on X completely and just use it for other things or to learn what people are saying about a particular topic, theological or otherwise. Of course, one should link and promote his own and/or other
Be careful on X
Be careful of the Catholic world of X, it can be nothing but angry pronouncements by people who are not qualified to say anything. This builds up pride and pride is the mother of all sins.
So, I use X but I rarely post and when I do, the response teaches me that we are dealing with people who want to prove themselves right not draw themselves or others closer to Christ.
Fr. Robert J Carr is the pastor emeritus of St. Anthony Parish in Allston, MA
He is currently, the chaplain for two hospitals in Brockton, Massachusetts
His Patreon Page is patreon.com/catholicaudiomedia
He is the author of several books including: Christ in Your Humanity
You write, "How much tolerance and mercy are you finding on X in many Catholic circles?"
Imho, the problem you are referring to arises directly out of the nature of thought. Thought operates by a process of conceptual division. Thus, the more thought oriented an experience of religion is, the most likely that experience is to inherit the divisive properties of thought.