What do I do with scandalous information?

[wgholland]

Today I learned news of a priest that is scandalous. Now, considering that this is a huge temptation for me because I have difficulty with bearing false witness, I am concerned about the protection and defense of the priesthood itself. Is my best route to go to my own parish priest, the bishop, or to just pray for this priest, hoping it is not true?

The whole thing swirls around homosexuality and I don’t want to know that in ignoring it I have been complicit in it somehow. I mean the scandal must be parish-wide for me to hear about in another city. So the entire parish is putting up with that or condoning? Maybe no one knows what to do.

I have no facts to follow up on except hearsay, and I guess because it came from Protestants, it makes me more ready to defend our faith for what it is really and not this protracted idea that all of our priests are not manly men.

I’m torn.

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

I have no facts to follow up on except hearsay.

By your own admission, you know nothing about this situation. Since you have also admitted that “bearing false witness” is an area of temptation in your life, I recommend that you ignore the information you were given and refuse to discuss it further with whoever passed along the information to you. Perhaps your example of refusing to listen to unsubstantiated allegations against a priest will serve as a positive Christian witness to the tale-bearer. If there is anything to the allegations worth following up on, leave doing so to those closer to the situation who are in a position to have more than “hearsay” on it. Whenever you find yourself tempted to give credence to the gossip you were given, use it as an opportunity to pray for the priest who, for all that you now know, may be the victim of vicious innuendo.

Recommended reading:

A Crisis of Saints by Fr. Roger Landry
Problems in the Church by Jimmy Akin