I’ve encountered a tendency amongst many fellow believers—especially in more traditional quarters—to express skepticism about the need to read the news. The sentiment seems to be that the wordiness and accompanying matters of the world are distractions. Instead, so the argument goes, we ought to direct our minds to higher plains and the divine.
Such thoughts are understandable, especially in the face of much of the trivia that passes for “news” these days, not to mention the often anti-religious slant and aggressively progressive agenda of much of the mainstream media nowadays. But a tendency to overly focus on the otherworldly can come at the cost of taking part in the necessary daily battles we must face as Catholics rooted in the world. And at a time in which the world needs Catholics more than ever.
