Today is the final Friday before Holy Week. The Church asks us to remember Jesus’ suffering and death on every Friday of the year. On Lenten Fridays we are asked to pray more intensely and to offer some kind of penance as a form of a “thank you” to the Lord for what he endured, and as an “I’m sorry” for the times we fell into sins. There are many motives for doing penance. For members of the Pauline Family, our prayers and work, in addition to any “extra” penance are offered to God in reparation for the disrespect given to Jesus, and all things sacred because of the misuse of the many forms of media. Sometimes this misuse comes in the form of mockery, put-downs of religious practices, and ridicule of the Pope and Bishops.
Reparation can also be “public.” By this I mean that when a radio or TV program blatantly mocks our Faith, we can do something about it. We do not “turn the other check” and allow the public airwaves or the cable for which we pay to trash our faith.
Call or email the channel or station with a respectful comment telling of your displeasure, not a hate-filled rant which is not worthy of a Christian citizen. You could say something like this,
“I usually enjoy this show, but the slurs about the Catholic Church are too much for me to endure. I refuse to watch this show (name it), nor will I buy any more products from its sponsors.“
A very effective way to cut short a program’s Catholic/Christian bashing is to notify the sponsors of the show. If it is a local company, call them and lodge your complaint. Again, be respectful but firm. If the company has an 800 or other toll-free number, call them with the complaint and the promise to avoid buying their products. For many companies, the bottom line is the profit from their ads supporting the offending program.
There is an axiom that survived for ages:
“The only things necessary for evil men to prosper is for good men to do nothing.”
Have a grace-filled Lenten Friday. God bless you!
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