Conspiracy theories....

...have been in the news.

Catholics are among the worst at spreading these. Especially young (mostly male?)  facebooktwitterbloggerwhatever types...a colleague was telling me the other day of her son's conspiracy-mania (which she wisely regards as just a phase, but still...)  and my own experiences both through meetings and youth events, and via the internet, have confirmed the phenomenon.

Older enthusiasts use the internet but also sometimes launch into print: one American newsletter had a wobbly structure of ranting anger centred on passionate loathing of St John Paul...there were weird, interconnecting  tirades involving a hate-fuelled longing for Divine intervention to  prevent the canonisation...and then of course there is Fatima... St John Paul and BXVI Were Both Liars and all that...one theory there involves a nun being walled up in a cellar while a doppleganger was brought out to talk to visiting Cardinals...oh, and do you remember the "plastic Pope" stories in the 1970s? Pope Paul had beem imprisoned - I think this is how the story went - and another chap was brought out from time to time who had Different Ears. Information about this sometimes began with a duplicated letter which announced that ears are the hardest bit of the body to fake  which I would have thought was demonstrably untrue...what about fingerprints?  Newer conspiracies involve Papa Francis being invalidly elected because somebody sneezed. Or something.

It will all continue. As will the nasty stuff aboutjewishmasonicplots and,onlyafewofusaretherealcatholics  and so on...

Meanwhile as for this Blog, we will stay with the advice from St Paul: "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think on these things"