I don’t believe that the issue is whether the media or the President are pro Catholic or anti Catholic. It’s irrelevant. If someone commits a crime and the media discovers it, we must all take the fall together. That is the truest meaning of the Mystical Body and the Communion of Saints. Along with the fact that someone has been hurt, there is also the other side of the coin. Someone has fallen from grace and must be saved.
We cannot protect the helpless unless we know where the dangers are and we cannot rescue the sinner from himself unless we know who he or she is. It is the job of every Catholic to do both, protect the innocent and atone for the sins of the Body. We cannot and should not deny the sins of the Body by saying that this one or that one is anti Catholic. That’s like people who scream RACIST when someone is accused of a crime.
What we Catholics must learn to do is something that the saints have taught us, but many have chosen to ignore. If we continue to ignore it, we will end up in the same place as those who commit these heinous crimes. Sexual abusers are not the only people whose souls are in danger. The souls of those who do not protect the vulnerable are also in danger. The souls of those who do not have mercy on the sinner, but ask for mercy, as also in danger.
One of the most interesting passages in scripture, that often gets glossed over by those who don’t have strong background in scripture, ancient languages and Deurteronomic Law is the woman caught in adultery. Jesus never denies her sin. This is very clear when he tells her to go and sin no more. But he also defends the rights of the sinner. This is what we fail to do. In the Deuteronomic Law it said that when a man and a woman commit adultery, both must be put to death by stoning.
When Jesus asks what’s going on and they tell him that she has committed adultery and must be put to death according to the law of Moses, they are acting like many of us do toward sexual offenders. We take the law and run with it. This is what the press does too.
But Jesus is a much better lawyer than the crowd. He knew that they were right about what the law said. And the law was not on trial, the woman was. He did not debate the law with them. He also observed that what they were doing was not consistent with the law. The Deuteronomic Law was not so black and white. The person was always innocent until found guilty. Today, we hear an allegation and we jump to the conclusion that the person is guilty. The media reflect the way that many of us think. The second part of that law is that the victim had to bring the charges against the unfaithful spouse, not the community. Again, today we do the same thing. We put people on trial in our minds in our conversations rather than leave it to the legal system to deal with it. The media reflects what the general public does.
The Deuteronomic Law said that if they were found guilty, both persons involved in adultery had to be put to death. If this woman committed adultery, he couldn’t do it alone. Where was her accomplice?
What Jesus observed was that they were outraged quoting the law correctly, but they were not implementing the law correctly. Yet, they had the nerve to be outraged at the woman caught in adultery, but they were not outraged at themselves for violating justice and mercy. That’s why Jesus challenges them, “Let him who has no sin throw the first stone.” They knew that what they were doing was sinful.
This is the sin that the media and the community at large commit. It’s not that the act is not a crime. Of course it’s a crime. But the law says that both the victim and the accused have rights. When you violate the rights of either, you sin against justice and against mercy. To hold up someone as guilty who has not been found guilty, is unmerciful and unjust. You cannot sentence before you try someone. When you do hold someone up for trial, you must follow the law. If you contaminate public opinion against the accused, how is that person going to get a fair trial?
The sins of the media and of its consumers, including Catholics, is not about being anti-Catholic. The sin that we and the media often share is that we violate our own laws. We condemn, before someone is found guilty. When someone is found guilty, we forget that we have a moral duty to that soul. We want to throw them into the dumpster and forget about them, as if Christ has not died for them too. Our compassion is driven by our emotions, not by our faith.
It’s easy to be compassionate toward the victim, because it engages our emotions. It’s a virtue to be compassionate toward the sinner, because it requires an act of the will to do what Christ told St. Faustina, to show mercy toward all. Jesus wants to show mercy, not justice. This was his message to Faustina and it was his last act on the cross. He said to the thief, “Tonight you will be with me in paradise.” In justice, the thief deserved at least purgatory. But Jesus canonized him minutes before he died. Jesus has a much stronger drive toward mercy than justice, because just like the Jews who wanted to stone the woman. This kind of justice is often a smoke screen for vengeance.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
