Over the years I have come to fear certain phrases, because they are almost always a sign of trouble. One of those phrases is, “Father, you need to see this.” Inevitably it is something I really don’t want to see: a leak, a crack in the structure, a plumbing problem, a flood, a frayed electrical wire, etc. In my 42 years as a priest no one has ever wanted to show me a pot of gold hidden under a floorboard.

Another phrase that I have come to dread is, “I was told.” Whenever someone starts a conversation with that phrase, I tense up. About 80% of the time what follows is not true. The key here is the use of the passive voice. The original source of the information is always unclear. Normally this concerns some rule or policy or something that may or may not be permitted. Sometimes I can correct the information and the individual thought was prohibited was not, or was prohibited sixty years ago but is not any longer. There is a sister phrase to “I was told” which begins “I was told by someone at the church.” Once again, the actual source is unclear, but these statements tend to be more of an effort that they had permission for something by citing a vague source of authority. Someone at the church might be themselves or a family member, but I can usually say with assurance that no one who works at the church told you that.

Now, thanks to AI, we can all be blessed by a new source of misinformation. Last week someone called to confirm that we were having our regular Recovery Mass Thursday night at 6:00pm. I told her that we did not offer a Recovery Mass on Thursday evenings. Then she said, “But it’s on Google.”  And, of course, we know that if it is on the internet it has to be true. I looked up “Recovery Mass, Assumption Church” on Google, and it is exactly as she said it was. Assumption Church at 323 West Illinois St. in River North has a Recovery Mass at 6:00pm on Thursday in Kohl’s Hall. Kohl’s Hall might be a clue. Some Assumption Church somewhere must have a Kohl’s Hall. And, sure enough, Assumption Catholic Church in Jacksonville, Fl has a facility named Kohl’s Hall where the Recovery Mass takes place. AI had put together two pieces of information that did not belong together.

What is true of churches is also true in every aspect of life. What we heard or thought we were told may stem from an honest mistake. Now thanks to social media, we have the ability to disseminate all kinds of stories that we think are true and may turn out to be not true. Once they are out there, they are often out there forever.  Even in the pre-digital age, stories that were not true could be disseminated widely, sometimes even spurred on by pastors and churches.

In the late 1970’s a story began to spread that Proctor and Gamble, the large consumer goods corporation in Cincinnati, was in league with the Church of Satan. Proctor and Gamble had a trademark that dated back to 1882 that showed a crescent moon with the face of a bearded man and 13 stars in a circle. The 13 stars represented the 13 original colonies, which the man in the moon was watching. No one had thought anything of it for a hundred years until some Christians detected small horns on the man’s head and claimed that the 13 stars were a reference to 666, the numerical symbol for Satan as recorded in Revelations 13:18. Never mind how little sense this made. Churches started a national boycott of Procter and Gamble products since they did not want company profits to go to The Church of Satan. After fighting the rumors for years, Proctor and Gamble decided to drop the symbol, but that simply inflamed the rumors. It proved that what people were saying about them was true all along.

So, all of this might be a reminder to be more careful than ever in what we say about one another or write about one another, even when we know that the facts are true. We should stop and ask ourselves, “Is this person going to benefit by knowing this?” Sometimes we tell stories because we want to make ourselves feel important, that we are “in the know,’ But Jesus spent his entire ministry reaching out to people who were not important or did not consider themselves valuable or important and help them understand that they are indeed important in the eyes of God, the one who truly matters. We do not have to compare ourselves to other people or put others down in order to lift ourselves up. God will do the heavy lifting. Let’s pray that the Holy Spirit, whose coming we celebrate next weekend will stir up the flame of God’s love in each one of us. . . . and be grateful to be the person God created us to be.

                                                               Fr. Joe