Critical Thinking

In one of his first addresses as pope, Leo XIV said that,

In the context of the ongoing digital revolution, we must rediscover, emphasize and cultivate our duty to train others in critical thinking...

(Full address here) The need for this is great for, as Leo went on to say, there are even those in 'ecclesial circles' who would be tempted towards not engaging in such a practice. That is a bad thing, indeed.

The Holy Father continued,

There is so little dialogue around us; shouting often replaces it, not infrequently in the form of fake news and irrational arguments proposed by a few loud voices. Deeper reflection and study are essential.

Sadly, Catholics are not immune to spreading such toxicity. Indeed, it is so bad that a priest on the r/AskAPriest sub-reddit recently said, 

To read the full thread, click here.

As Fratelli Tutti is dedicated to sharing Catholic social media content, Sparky0457's comment hit me hard. It made me wonder what I should do: take his comment to heart and delete this blog? 

As you can tell, I have decided not to. 

Instead, I am going to do two things.

Firstly, I will take this opportunity to renew my commitment to listing good Catholic social media accounts. With God's help, though I may trip up from time to time, I will be able to do so. 

Secondly, I will do my best to encourage critical thinking, both in myself, and you the reader. To this end, I have published a new page on the blog, one dedicated to websites that teach how to develop critical thinking skills.

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My prayer is that anyone reading a blog post, listening to a podcast, or watching a video etc by a Catholic that they found via Fratelli Tutti is uplifted by the experience. Sparky0457's comment gives a good indication of obvious people to avoid. Bad content, however, can come in far more subtle forms, forms that need critical thinking skills to discern. I hope that the pages linked to here help us all to do that.