One of the effects of original sin is an instinctive prejudice in favor of our own selfish desires. We see things as they are not, because we see them centered on ourselves. Fear, anxiety, greed, ambition and our hopeless need for pleasure all distort the image of reality that is reflected in our minds. Grace does not completely correct this distortion all at once: but it gives us a means of recognizing and allowing for it. And it tells us what we must do to correct it. Sincerity must be bought at a price: the humility to recognize our innumerable errors, and fidelity in tirelessly setting them right. ― Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island
Recently we learned that Australia’s High Court overturned a lower court’s guilty verdict against Cardinal George Pell on the charge of sexual abuse. The reactions to this acquittal from Catholics in the United States were all over the map. The website of the journal First Things posted articles praising this exoneration of an innocent man who was the victim, as they argued, of an anti-Catholic lynch mob. On the other end of the spectrum, the National Catholic Reporter published articles and editorials lamenting how yet another high-ranking Church official got away with sexual abuse, and quoted sexual abuse victim advocates who all agreed that justice was not served here. Continue reading “Catholicism And…”
