Originally published at The Catholic Thing
Is it a sin to follow the news? Or to read commentators upon the news? Or to listen to podcasts that comment upon the commentators? Or to watch the YouTube videos of those picking apart the podcasts?
It’s Lent, the season for more than the usual number of Confessions. And this Lent, as has increasingly been the case over the last half-dozen years or so, more and more penitents are confessing that they are following the news.
They don’t put it exactly that way. They say that the news is making them angry, more apt to harbor resentments, to making rash judgments, to indulging prejudices, to cultivating ill will, to rejoicing in the misfortune of others – even to wishing harm upon those who disagree. All this is directed at people they have never personally met – this political leader, that famous personage.
For those penitents who know the language, they speak of the news as an occasion of sin, about which they’ve been careless.
I don’t recall hearing that in the confessional ten years ago; if I did, it was rare. Now, I hear it frequently. The volume and ethos of the news is evidently disturbing the peace of
