I have Catholic friends – both men and women, younger and older – and I’m worried about some of them.
It’s the conspiracy theories. But I’ve realised now that the ones caught up in this are suffering in some way.
Some are hurting from family problems, or in a marriage that’s in the doldrums.
Conspiracy theories are like crack cocaine. They go straight to the wounded part of a soul and start ladling out the dopamine.
The person feels part of something special. They interact with other lonely cranks online.
If they’re a smart person, they now feel smarter. If they’re not, they now feel smart for the first time in their life.
They can waste their God-given intellect following trails of “evidence” and doing “research”.
They can engage in what feels like “action” – endless fights and lecturing on social media.
All of this is spiritually harmful. If you’re trying to be a better Catholic, then it’s stopping you.
It’s not harmless – it’s diabolical. Let me explain how.
First, you’re not a “researcher” or “independent thinker” or “contrarian”. You’re an addict.
If you don’t believe me, go cold turkey from this stuff for 48 hours and see how you feel.
Addicts never set out to become addicts. But it’s what happens when you keep giving way to your impulses with no brakes.
Do you think you’ve cured your loneliness? You’re spending hours in a world that doesn’t really exist and interacting with people who you don’t know in real life.
Addicts aren’t available for loving relationships with other real people. They prefer their addiction.
You may have found this out the hard way, now that you’ve fought with your entire family and most of your friends over CIA chemtrails and international finance.
Your addiction is taking you further away from real, loving interactions with the people nearest to you – your neighbours in Christ.
It’s making you lonelier and crankier than ever before. And therein lies the seeds of possible loss of eternal life.
People who go to hell always begin the journey here and now. They start choosing away from God, usually by first choosing away from other people.
God designed us for each other. We need other people in real life, for better and for worse.
They are both our cross and our resurrection.
But it’s very hard to love your fellow Catholics if you think of them as “sheeple” – inferior and easily-led people who lack your secret decoding ring for the universe.
Quick reminder: the first person to describe us as sheep – repeatedly – was actually God (Numbers 27:17).
I can’t think of a single conspiracy theory that has anything to do with spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ in the way he asked us to.
This involves cleaning up our own act before helping our neighbours to clean up theirs.
Christianity is an extremely in-your-face religion. It requires you to love the people around you, even if you don’t like them or get on with them.
If you’re fully occupied in doing that – which is your God-given mission – then you probably won’t have time to “research” psy-ops, the moon landings, or lizard people.
Can’t you see where this stuff is coming from? Let’s say you believe that the college of cardinals is at least half-full of Freemasons.
If it’s true, then you had no control over those cardinals’ personal choices, which were clearly wrong.
You could counteract their bad choices by doubling down in prayer and fasting for their conversion.
Or you could turn into a seething ball of hatred in a YouTube algorithm-fuelled advertising echo chamber and call for their public execution.
If you chose the latter, I’d say the devil has already done his work through you.
He didn’t need any cardinals to really be Freemasons. He just had to persuade you that this was the case.
Choose hate like this, over and over again, and you are choosing hell for yourself.
Nothing – absolutely nothing – is as important as pursuing holiness through loving God and loving your neighbour.
Especially not your opinions on the war in Gaza, vaccines, Donald Trump, aliens, the election of Pope Paul VI, the Illuminati, immigration, false flag operations, and anything involving the word “Anon”.
Because these are just your opinions. Not facts.
The actual facts are these: You have been baptised and consecrated to go out and preach the good news whenever and wherever you can.
This is a full-time mission that will shape how you spend eternity.
Please get some fresh air and remember who you are and what you’re called to.