Catholic Sensibility

Deal Hudson and Rembert Weakland Not without sympathy have I read the numerous efforts to come to grips with the scandal of Deal Hudson by my conservative friends in St Blog's. One blogger suggests (with a substantial stretch, I think) that the NCR has damaged the Sacrament of Reconciliation by printing their story about a publisher who seduced a young woman with drink and sex, sins for which we're sure he has confessed and been given absolution. Seeing a hero take a fall is a difficult thing. That one's hero may be Bill Clinton, Jesse Jackson, Newt Gingrich, Rembert Weakland, or Deal Hudson is irrelevant to the shared sense of betrayal we feel when a person we have tried to align a lesser or greater portion of our life has frittered away our trust in a shameful way. Regarding Hudson and Weakland, Catholics on both sides of the St Blog's ideological divide miss an opportunity to reflect on the commonality of these scandals. Both men were public figures, admired by supporters and villified by many. Both were icons of their own brand of Catholicism. Both were tripped up by very old scandals of sex. Both presumably availed themselves (as they say) of the sacrament of reconciliation. Both scandals elicited a good amount of glee in Catholic quarters, and a lot of aversion and excuse-making in others. I now read of Hudson quitting his Crisis desk and getting bumped up to a position in a newly created subsidiary of the collective. Whatever. And the wound is opened again. Maybe he should just mop floors in penance for a decade or two, instead of doing public speaking and writing gigs, some suggest. Maybe the nasty liberal press should honor the seal of confession and lay off, like God has done, others say. This is what I think. I'm getting tired of Deal Hudson news. But maybe his fall gives us a chance to look in the mirror a bit more closely. Are we willing to treat our (meaning, I guess, mine and yours) public sinners the same and get our own agendas (petty as well as profound) out of the way as we deal with them? It is an American fault that enjoys so well the downfall of the high and mighty -- and don't let the suggestion of modern media-driven hero worship tell you otherwise. If there's money to be made in watching somebody take a fall, you can bet cameras will be on hand. (If for nothing else, everybody also likes a rehabilitation -- that sells, too.) So how'd you do comparing your reaction to Weakland and Hudson? Anything to share?