Nowadays, as usual in times of crisis, conspiracy theories are all around us. It’s not surprising if a friend appears to believe in them and even seek them out. It might be challenging, but what is the best way to respond to them?

We begin by doing our best to enter into our friend’s way of thinking, not necessarily to adopt these ideas for ourselves, but at least, to understand them and appreciate them.

To do this, we have to listen with an open mind. No one is usually completely 100% wrong, so it is valuable to listen for whatever elements of truth this person may indeed have discovered despite other aspects that might be problematic.

If we think of a “conspiracy” as the premeditated and concerted action of a number of people for some evil or corrupt purpose, we should keep in mind that such things do happen in our broken world. And in today’s complicated society, the participants in a given movement or common project may not perhaps consider themselves as “conspirators,” even while those who disagree with their ideals might be tempted to label them as such.

With the tangled web of competing values that occupy the social landscape today, it will be helpful to distill from the pressure cooker of emotional discourse the bare facts of the case and make sound moral arguments about those facts, without presupposing ulterior motives. By translating our emotional responses into hard facts, we lay the groundwork for rational discourse instead of mere name-calling.

There is a difference, however, between a person who claims to recognize some objectionable activity occurring, on the one hand, and another who seems to seek such activity constantly and everywhere.

Often, the person who has such a tendency is one who is deeply frustrated by the social environment and feels incapable of changing it. This sense of helplessness is then blamed on certain culprits — often located in the power structures of society, government, or the Church, with the complaint that if these evil actors could only be eliminated, life would be much better.

When such thoughts seem to dominate someone’s mental and emotional life, there may be little benefit to be gained from trying to argue with their perceived facts. Instead, it might be better to suggest that real change is possible not by aiming at the destruction of such real or perceived enemies, but by adopting and promoting a Gospel way of living, regardless of the problems that may be out there.

At the beginning of the Focolare Movement in war-torn Italy, Chiara Lubich and her early friends were living in a Fascist dictatorship that might be said to consist in the totalitarian worship of the State above all other values. In an alliance with German National Socialism or the Nazis, their own government caused their homeland and the world to be embroiled in one of the most devastating wars in history.

These women, however, chose not to focus on mobilizing political power to change the system. Furthermore, Chiara and her companions found another even more effective way of counteracting systemic evil in society.

Seeing evil as symptomatic of an absence of the God they had come to know as pure love, they discerned that their mission was to bring into that very society the presence of God, who is love, in all that they did. They understood that where God’s love is truly experienced by people, corrosive ideologies do not need to be attacked head-on, because they will collapse under their own weight and be unmasked as the untruths and distortions that they are.

When presented with a clear choice between the bitterness of godless ideologies and the warmth of a God whom people really encounter as love through those who know him, human beings will be led to see the light of truth.

When faced with “conspiracy theories” then, adopting the way of the Gospel that reveals God as love will be the best way to overcome evil. We have no assurance that this method will win over every single individual, but we do have a promise that the overall victory will be ours.

As Jesus frankly tells his disciples, that victory will be accomplished not by interpersonal combat but by his sacrificial death: “In the world, you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world” (Jn 16:33).

Msgr. Michael Magee
(Living City, USA)