There is a man who is not far from the Kingdom of Heaven. How easy it is to forget the words of St. Augustine: interficere errorem, diligere errantem: kill the error, love the one who errs. Put another way, hate the sin, love the sinner. Judging by many of the horrific comments which accompany the Union Leader article, it would appear that far too many people have forgotten this maxim.
We expect much from our priests. And much more from a Bishop of the House of God. In a book entitled "God and the World: A Conversation with Peter Seewald," then Cardinal Ratzinger and now Pope Benedict XVI is asked a question by German journalist Seewald:
"If they [priests] have been called by Christ himself, why are there bad priests? Why are there even bad bishops? In the case of some of those he has chosen the Lord obviously seems to have made a mistake."
Cardinal Ratzinger's response:
"It certainly can happen that people slip through, as it were, without really having received a call. But there are also 'failed callings,' that is, callings that are not truly lived out. The strange thing is...God entrusts himself to such fragile vessels. That he has taken such a horrible risk with the Church. He has put himself into hands that betray him time and again. And he has left us the opportunity of falling and of being corrupted, so that he still has to support the Church himself again and again through these very tools that have proved unsuitable. It is a consolation, on the one hand, that the Lord is stronger than the sins of men, but, on the other hand, a great challenge for all those who have turned toward this calling and who believe they have received it to let it truly mature in fellowship with Christ." (p. 431).
This whole unfortunate affair could prove to be a teaching moment for the Church and the wider community. For we all have to learn how to be more merciful: "They said to him, 'Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?'...Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger. But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to them, 'Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." (John 8: 7).
We all know what happened. Each and every person who had been holding up a stone to hurl at the woman who had been caught in adultery dropped their stone and left the woman alone with Jesus. Doesn't Bishop McCormack deserve the same?
It would be so easy to just distance ourselves from Bishop McCormack. But such an approach would be wrong. As Dr. Germain Grisez has said, "When the Church suffers from the shameful misdeeds of a leading member, no one should distance himself or herself from the shame by joining the company of scorners; rather, everyone should accept some share in the shame and work to heal the wound."
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