Courtney McGrail“Conspiracy theories offer easy answers by casting the world as simpler and more predictable than it is,” according to Sander van der Linden’s 2013 scientificamerican.com article ‘What a Hoax: Why people believe in conspiracy theories’, which argues that conspiracy theories’ popularity can pose a threat to societal well-being.
It was somewhat reassuring, then, to learn how Pope Francis intervened early in the current synod to caution the synod fathers against a “hermeneutic of conspiracy”, he described as “sociologically weak and spiritually unhelpful”.
The only shame is that he hasn’t made a similar request of online Catholic commentators, some of whom appear to have but a tangential relationship with reality.
At voiceofthefamily.com, the website of a lobby group set up before last year’s synod, for instance, one blogpost proclaims ‘LGBT pre-synod conference gets strong episcopal backing’, before revealing how just one Mexican bishop attended the tiny conference; given that the world has roughly 5,100 bishops, it takes a certain creativity to describe the presence of a solitary bishop as “strong episcopal backing”.
“Conspiracy theorists propose, without having collected rigorous data to support their case, that powerful people or groups are secretly plotting to accomplish some sinister goal,” according to van der Linden, and it’s patently apparent that rigorous data collection isn’t a priority for those convinced sinister cabals are on the brink of distorting the synod and splitting the Church.
Vatican spokesman Fr Tom Rosica has become something of a lightning rod for the ire of the more fevered conspiracy theorists, with one screaming that the Canadian priest has disgraced the Vatican press office and Pope Francis himself by becoming ‘the story’ of the synod, others claiming it is “implausible” that he is reporting the synod proceedings objectively, and yet more brandishing every rumour and observation as “proof” of this.
Churchmilitant.com, recently described by Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput’s press office as having as its “sole desire” the creation of “division, confusion, and conflict within the Church”, has prominently raised such doubts, running one piece headed with a picture of Fr Rosica and captioned ‘Synod manipulation? The faithful are questioning the accuracy of synod briefings and English translations of the bishops’ interventions’.
Underlying a host of allegations is an ncregister.com piece by Ed Pentin, showing there had been more to synod debates than Fr Rosica’s focus on gay people and homosexual relationships might suggest, and constructing “a more rounded picture of what was discussed”.
No motive
Crucially, unlike the more febrile keyboard warriors of Twitter and Facebook, Pentin attributes no motive to Fr Rosica’s selectivity, and at cruxnow.com, John Allen explains the main problem with synod coverage.
“The dirty little secret is that we’re not really covering the synod at all,” he says, “for the most part, we’re covering people telling us about the synod, which is an entirely different enterprise.”
Press briefings
Without a journalistic presence at synod debates, all that can be reported, Allen explains, are time-constrained press briefings that are necessarily selective, and personal interviews which really only convey individual bishops’ personal impressions.
Online unease and outrage, then, is typically based on filtered tweets highlighting filtered blogposts commenting on filtered reports of subjective impressions.
Still, for those determined to scrutinise the synod’s workings, it could be worth looking at such blogs as those of Brisbane’s Archbishop Mark Coleridge at brisbanecatholic.org.au, Gatineau’s Archbishop Paul-André Durocher at singandwalk.blogspot.com, and – if your Polish is up to scratch – Poznan’s Bishop Stanisław Godecki at abpgadecki.com.
The reports of the synod fathers’ discussion groups will apparently be released too, and all bishops are at liberty to release their speeches and to speak freely to the press.
Reasonable members of Christ’s flock should have no genuine fears about a cabal of nefarious shepherds pulling the wool over their eyes.