When the "good promoting" algorithm still promotes rad-trad
Plus: Some eclectic Christmas music
Good morning and happy Saturday.
This week we are entering the Third Week of Advent. The readings for this Sunday are Isaiah 61:1-2, 10-11; Luke 1:46-50, 53-54; 1 Thessolonians 5:16-24; and John 1:6-8, 19-28.
Now, for those of you praying the Liturgy of the Hours, tomorrow is a strange day because it is also December 17. At Evening Prayer 1, everthing is normal. Beginning at the Invitatory, things change slightly as we enter a “priviledged season.”
The Invitatory antiphon is the following:
The Lord is close at hand; come, let us worship him.
At the Office of Readings, the psalms are from Psalter Week III. The readings and responsories are from December 17, not from the Third Sunday of Advent. Those readings are Isaiah 45:1-13 and a letter from Pope St. Leo the Great.
For Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer II, the Psalms are from Psalter Week III and the readings and responsories are from the Third Sunday of Advent. At the Canticle of Zechariah and the Magnificat, the antiphons are from December 17. The intercessions are taken from December 17 as well. The concluding prayer is from the Third Sunday of Advent.
Daytime Prayer is from the Third Sunday of Advent.
Why is there a strange change for this Sunday? December 17 to December 24 is a “priviledged season” in the Liturgy of the Hours. At Evening Prayer we use the O Antiphons at the Magnificat. These antiphons date back to at least 500 AD when they were briefly referenced in a work by Boethius.
Additionally, these are the final days of Advent. It is strange to say that as we cross into the Third Sunday of Advent, but that is what happens when Christmas falls on the Monday after the Fourth Sunday of Advent.
Because this is a priviledged season, all obligatory memorials (not just in the United States, but around the world) are suspended and are only optional. This is so we can enter more deeply into the Advent season.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
Isaiah 61:1 (as cited in Luke 4:18)
In the news:
The United States
More facts emerge in killing of Nebraska priest - Catholic News Agency
For those who need some blue: Priest (from a schismatic/now-Protestant community) says first execution by nitrogen hypoxia is a threat to religious liberty - Religion News Service
For those who need some red: (Now torn down) display by Iowa Satanic Temple not protected by First Ammendment, say Catholic legal experts - Catholic News Agency
Opinion: Andre Braugher played the best Catholic character on TV - America Magazine
The Vatican
These are the other six popes buried at the Basilica of St. Mary Marjor - Catholic World Report
St. Gianna Beretta Molla's brother, Fr. Alberto Molla, declared “venerable” - The Pillar
Vatican orders closure of religious community co-founded by disgraced Fr. Marko Rupnik - The Pillar
The World
These religious sisters have chosen to remain in Gaza - America Magazine
Some Syro-Malabar priests want an investigation into Pope’s demand for obedience last week - Crux
Climate: Catholics say COP28 climate change deal “encouraging” but “not fast enough” - Crux
This week, I came across an interesting report from another Substack page called “Garbage Day.” Garbage Day is a newsletter about the internet.
I am not a regular reader of Garbage Day, but an article from this week caught my eye and piqued my interest.
Using the analytical tools that they employ, they found that a rad trad page on Facebook and its corresponding website had shot up to the top ten most engaged with posts on Facebook. The website and page are called “Catholic Fundamentalism.” They found that one of the articles, “Do Catholics find ‘Life’ by being pleasing to God? The Psalms tell us! #17 had more interactions than the Associated Press’ obituary for Jimmy Buffett.
As you might exepct from a website called “Catholic Fundamentalism,” they have some headlines that make purple Catholics like me cringe. Here are some examples:
Why are Willful Protestants the worst gamblers on earth?
We see why The Profiteers of Protestantism took The Book of Wisdom OUT of their Bibles!
Did the South win the Civil War?
Why soccer is beloved by the dumb and the damned.
Now, I’ll admit clicking on around on the site, I became quite confused because it is not formatted very well and is filled with both columns, question and answer, and what looks like an attempt at some satirical fiction.
So how did it get to the top of Facebook? The analysts at Garbage Day figured out that by the amount of people commenting “Amen” on its posts, it had managed to manipulate the Facebook algorithm in its favor.
In June, Facebook reportedly changed its algorithm (nearly a year after a whistle blower testified in front of Congress) so that posts that seem relatively simple and happy, as opposed to controverisal or angry, were amplified.
Because no one was clicking on the links to the posts, just commenting “Amen” and sharing it, it tricked Facebook into thinking it was uplifting and happy.
Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee who testified in front of Congress in 2021, has written a book recently in which she describes how Facebook bolstered posts that were controversial. Haugen alleges that this led to much of the division and vitriol we saw in the 2016 election and onward.
It is no secret that there are several Catholic websites out there, both on the right and the left, that still attempt to make use of click-baity controversial articles. But, I stand by what Fr. Joe Krupp in the Diocese of Lansing said in a column several years ago: If the website you’re on isn’t talking about Jesus all that much, it probably isn’t worth spending that much time on.
So lets talk about Jesus. As we prepare ourselves for Christmas in these final weeks of Advent, we need to remember that we ought to prepare ourselves for his second coming. I’m not going to make a judgement about who is and isn’t ready (as the Catholic Fundamentalism page seems to) but instead I’m going to focus on myself since that is what we are called to do.
We are called to evangelize and to spread the truth far and wide, but how can we do that if we do not believe it and live it ourselves? We ought to pray for that for ourselves and eachother.
In this Sunday’s second reading, St. Paul tells the Thessolonians (and us):
Refrain from every kind of evil.
May the God of peace make you perfectly holy
and may you entirely, spirit, soul, and body,
be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We ought to make that our prayer intention this week as we prepare for Christmas and the second coming.
Does making that comment online or to someone we disagree with make us more or less holy? Are we refraining from spreading evil (or hate or malice or gossip) when we share an article online? I know I need to reflect on these things in my own life and I do during my examination of conscience.
If you’re inclined to listen to the radio on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, I invite you to check out my Christmas music program. This is the second year I have had the opportunity to do The Great Christmas Music Show in which I share the some of the most eclectic and largest varity of Christmas music you’re going to find anywhere on the radio.
Here are some of the highlights:
A duet between Bing Crosby and David Bowie
A (comedic) song about spending Christmas at the airport
A Christmas song from the one-hit-wonder duo The Weather Girls (this is not the one hit)
And music from Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, The Dramatics, and more.
You can listen on Christmas Eve at 4pm on EPIC Radio 103.5FM in Wake Forest, NC (or stream here) or on Christmas Day at 7am. The program will also air on WIZS 100.1FM / 1450AM in Henderson, NC, though that air time has yet to be detirmined.
Here is another one of my favorites that didn’t make it into the radio show this year (although it has made it into an Amazon.com ad):
Have a good weekend,
Matthew