Is there perhaps something else that would be *appropriate* for you to say at this point, since you're the person who posted the fake story?

Chonak, I don't know what I'm supposed to say. I unwittingly made a mistake and posted an excerpt from satirical piece I saw on a Catholic news aggregate, thinking it was a real story. Thank you very much for spotting it and taking it down.

What else am I supposed to say except that I'm very relieved it was fake---even though I did say I wondered if it might have been an early April Fool's Day joke in my original post.

P.S. Sorry for any confusion.

P.P.S. In fact, I feel so contrite and ashamed I'm going to dig a tunnel in the nearest snowbank and not come out until all the snow melts. : (

Please don't Julie, but if you must... here is an ice tunnel you might like...

A very, very good priest that I know, made two very good observations:

1) Everything today is to topsey-turvey, so completely bizarre, in the secular world and in the Church, that it is very difficult at actually parody something because at this point life itself is a parody. From which follows:

2) Many of the parody new items you see today (he was specifically referring to "Vatican III" and "Pope Benedict XVI Returns") are easily believable because of how weird everything has become. What was satire 50 years ago is front page news of the NY Times today. It's easy to believe everything you read, even if it doesn't make sense, because nothing today seems to make sense.

I think it is very easy for even other-wise sensible people to occasionally be taken in by something. We are all human, after all; and even Papal Infallibility doesn't prevent believing a fake news story.

Salieri brings up several important points.

I think it's a shame that, rather than seizing upon a teachable moment, our admin decided to pull the article down, more likely than not so as to "save face" and the reputation of the board (in his mind, at any rate).

I think it would have been more beneficial, in light of the seemingly breathless, nonstop distortion in reporting of the goings-on of the Vatican and the Holy Father, to have kept the article up and used it as a means of educating others in the sometimes difficult task of separating truth from fiction as it pertains to such reporting.

We are currently living in difficult days for the Church. Confusion, scandal and media manipulation threaten to set the good work of serious-minded, orthodox Catholics back years, even decades. To shrink away from an article like this one because it was discovered to be faked rather than seizing upon a golden opportunity to bring into the light just how destructive, deceptive and wantonly evil certain media outlets (whose motivations may or may not be influenced by liberals bent on destroying what little progress has been made in reclaiming our unique Catholic identity) is nothing less than a display of weakness and uncertainty.

So the article was a fake? Wonderful! Point out the wickedness of the deception and bring it into the full light so that all can learn how to recognize the wiles and craftiness of the Evil One! By being uneasy with its presence on the board and then humiliating the original poster for the innocent mistake, we only compound the vileness of the mischaracterizations presented in the sham article and let the enemies of Truth believe that they're succeeding.

I say repost the sham article, expose the lies, shame the media outlet (that was supposed to be legitimate) rather than the poster, and claim a moral victory while educating the Faithful in how to recognize these wicked attempts at sowing dissent and suspicion among the innocent.

Thank you so much for making me feel better, David and Salieri! "Innocent" sounds so much better than "gullible" and "naive" which is how I've been feeling all week, although I don't think I was the only one who was taken for a ride with that story, but it is a good lesson to check sources more thoroughly as Chonak rightly pointed out, and I appreciate his quick intervention, as painful and awkward as it was, but I'm a tough old rabbit and getting tougher all the time. He needed to act quickly to avoid any potential scandal, and I completely understand. Besides that, it's Lent and a little mortification isn't a bad thing at all.

This experience shook me up a bit. It's not a pleasant climate in the Church right now, and it's difficult to keep your bearings. I appreciate so much having good, wise, steady friends here on this forum to help focus on the things that matter and deal appropriately with things as they develop.