In Good Company Help In Unexpected Places

Apr 13, 2010

“You are never alone when you are right.”

That was what my mom always assured me when, as a little girl, I’d come home roiled by some calumny perpetrated by one of two girlish bullies in my elementary school cohort. Mom taught us to stand up for the weird and picked-on kids in school. That type of deed often resulted in drawing the painful fire onto oneself.

False accusations hurt, especially when it seems that even your friends credit them and repeat them. “If what you believe is true, then even if they are quiet, other people see it too,” Mom would say.

She was right, my mother.

Her calming words have kept coming back to me in these past few weeks when deeply unjust accusations against Pope Benedict XVI seem to swirl everywhere.

Before going further, let me affirm that crimes of abuse against children are inexcusable; that reporters investigating mishandling of such cases have in the long run performed the Church a service (light being the best disinfectant); that credible accusations of clerical abuse are in no way commensurate with girlish gossip; and that abuse does long-term emotional and spiritual damage to its victims, who deserve all of our empathy, prayers and support.

Hyperbole, however, is not a tool of justice. Likewise, the effort to pin any malfeasance (as opposed to decisions made in good faith) on Benedict XVI, who, as all informed observers on the matter know, has been leading the charge against clerical abuse and the culture that enabled it for too long, is an example of scapegoating and misplaced anger of the worst kind.

A therapist friend told me that when people have experienced a true trauma, hearing of similar trauma in others may stir up all the person’s un-dealt-with emotions in relation to their own personal experience. Perhaps that is a factor in why, as soon as this topic is raised, anger flares and it becomes very difficult to keep perspective and have a rational discussion.

Yet if we are to avoid a mob mentality which sweeps up many innocent with the guilty few, we must be rational. It’s hard for Catholics to make this point, however, without being accused of caring more for the reputation of an institution than for justice towards victims of monstrous crimes.

That’s why I’m grateful to the former mayor of New York, Ed Koch, for rising to the defense of the Church and the Pope. His Honor is a Conservative Jew who makes no secret of disagreeing with the Church on any number of matters. Yet he has had it with careless journalism that takes no pains to separate fact from fiction or to corroborate stories before repeating them.

He writes, “I believe the continuing attacks by the media on the Roman Catholic Church and Pope Benedict XVI have become manifestations of anti-Catholicism. The procession of articles on the same events are, in my opinion, no longer intended to inform, but simply to castigate.”

“Enough is enough” he says.

A similar note was sounded by Alan Dershowitz, the noted civil liberties lawyer. It would be hard to name a figure more publicly at odds with the Church’s moral teaching.  Yet he writes a fair-minded summary of the Church’s position, concluding that the Pope has been a hero in the fight against abuse, and that other institutions besides the Church need to root out sexual exploitation, something that is not a uniquely Catholic phenomenon but a world-wide scourge.

“This tragedy should not be used as an excuse to attack a large and revered institution that does much good throughout the world. Blame must be placed with precision and praise should be given with precision as well. The eleventh Commandment, thou shalt not stereotype, must never be forgotten.”

Mom also used to say we should remember how lonely it felt to be misunderstood and calumnied. She also told us to publicly defend people being unjustly attacked. I thank Ed Koch and Alan Dershowitz for having the decency and sense of fair play to stand up for our Church.