Those who publish this information claim to be telling us what is happening in the world, but in our wiser moments we remember to question whether they are offering us the truth.

From experience, we know that the loudest voices belong to persons and institutions whose enormous wealth lets them fill the pages of newspapers, or radio and television channels.

Their stories enhance their own image and increase their profits.

Truth and lies

The daily news may give us the basic facts about a plane crash or a court trial, but when it comes to the truth about why a war is being fought, or about global warming, we need to be more cautious.

In fact we can identify several areas where the mainstream media in our "western" nations consistently distort the truth about our world.

Lie number one

One basic lie which is quietly promoted is that "White" people are of more value - are more important - than "people of colour".

More column-space and air-time is given to the death of a few "White" people than the death of hundreds or even thousands of Blacks, Asians or Palestinians.

Refugees from those populations are seen as a problem, usually treated callously.

They're not usually treated as the victims of wars provoked by our "White" nations, or of famines resulting from the global warming caused by centuries of our industrial activity.

We assume that we have a right to plunder "Third World" resources, as we earlier took the land of non-Whites.

We even justify that theft, whether it happened in North America during colonisation, across Australia after 1788, in Africa during the 19th century, or in Palestine since 1948.

In the latter case, mainstream media mostly ignore or conceal the genocide which now is completing that land theft, and demonises those - such as tertiary students - who dare protest against it.

Lie number two

Another fundamental untruth almost completely overlooked is that the "growth" of every nation's GDP cannot continue.

This is because every resource on earth - fresh water, iron, oil, gas, forests; even our capacity to capture sunlight - is limited.

Although some resources - coal - are more abundant than others, our civilisation will not survive unless we change to a world economy based on genuine re-cycling.

Lie number three

A third basic lie spread by (most) media is their denial of the rapidly approaching but unpredictable "tipping points" that will soon be triggered by the heating of our planet.

Resulting from several centuries of our burning fossil fuels and building cities, these tipping points may come in various ways.

They may involve the irreversible melting of ice-caps and glaciers; the sudden extinction of inter-dependent species - including rain forests; or the altered flow of ocean currents and jet-streams.

Although national leaders talk together regularly, and politicians make promises, none has so far had the will to stop the ruthless greed of fossil-fuel merchants.

They won't even admit the elephant in the room, the disaster that is rapidly approaching.

The Holy Spirit

But at Pentecost we reflect on the Holy Spirit, which is mentioned hundreds of times in the pages of the New Testament.

This Spirit moves people to speak in prophesy - Zechariah, Elizabeth, Simeon, Anna, John the Baptist.

The Spirit overwhelmed the adult Jesus at his baptism, driving him out into the desert and then leading him on his mission.

By the Spirit's power he healed people and drove out demons.

He told his followers that they can call on the Spirit within them when they were attacked for speaking the truth.

John's later gospel calls it the Spirit of Truth (14:17, 15:26, 16:13), and reflects how we can each receive this divine Spirit.

At our present time of grave world crisis, it must be obvious to anyone believing in God, that God's Spirit is not the exclusive property of any one faith tradition or clergy.

On the contrary, we each need urgently to call on this tremendous gift within us, using the Divine power it gives to unite our human family and to heal our fragile planet.

• First published in Finding the Treasure
• Peter Murnane O.P. is a Melbourne-based Dominican Friar, author and political activist. (Originally, CathNews was in error, saying Peter was New Zealand based.)

Murnane became a household name in New Zealand in 2010.

He had been charged with burglary and wilful damage to the Waihopai spy base near Blenheim - charges the High Court acquitted Murnane and two others of in 2011.

The first the 82-year old heard of his alleged involvement in the Blockade Australia demonstration was when two police officers turned up on his doorstep.

"They presented me with an eight-page charge sheet accusing me of being at a protest in Sydney in June this year," he says.

That late-June protest was one of two unauthorised demonstrations. Scores of climate demonstrators converged on Sydney's CBD, chaotically disrupting the morning peak-hour traffic.

If found guilty of causing serious disruption to roads, rail, and ports, he and others could be fined AUD$22,000 and be jailed for two years.

Murnane says he's been accused of blocking access to the Sydney Harbour Bridge and blocking George Street and other streets. He says he's also been accused of "walking about throughout a long protest playing a drum".

The police told him he was seen on CCTV, public media and Facebook live streaming.

"That was quite amazing to me. I was in Melbourne during those days and weeks so it was quite a puzzle to me."

He says he doesn't own or play a drum, either. Nor has he been involved in any Blockade Australia protests.

New South Wales (NSW) Police "deserve to be called to account for this pretty horrendous mistake" he says.

The head of the Dominican church community in the Melbourne suburb of Camberwell, Father Mark O'Brien, is defending Murnane's innocence.

"I can confirm that this allegation is quite mistaken or false ... he was at St Dominic's on 27th June and so could not have been in Sydney on the same day," he stated on ABCs 7.30 programme.

Lawyer Mark Davis is acting for a group of Blockade Australia protesters and supporters.

He says he's asked for the Police to drop the charges against Murnane, but they have not responded.

The Police won't comment on the case to media either, as it's before the court.

Source

• ABC