William J. Grace, S.J.
The Human Element resides in every individual, lay and cleric. The Church is not made up exclusively of saints. Within its membership it has also weaklings and sinners. Christ foretold that it would be so. He compared His Church, the “Kingdom of God,” to a field which the owner has sown with good seed, but which has been oversown with weeds by the enemy at night. When the laborers ask whether they should uproot the weeds, the master tells them not to do so. “Let both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn’” (Mt. 13:30). Again, our Lord compared His Church to a fisherman’s net, which catches all kinds of fish, both good and bad.
Laymen are human, so are priests and bishops and popes. All can go astray. All may make mistakes of judgment, and all may commit personal sin; for, like others, they possess freedom of will. Let us never forget that there have been scandals in the Church since the time of Christ. Judas was a thief and a traitor, as well as a suicide. The Apostles James and John quarreled, and so did Peter and Paul. When the good Master was in His greatest need, His Apostles ran away, the chief among them swore to God that he did not even know the Man.
If such things happen even during the lifetime of Christ, it should not be surprising to find that in the course of twenty centuries others have weakened and played the Master false. It should not surprise us too much even if we find this occurring now and again among the successors of Peter and the Apostles.
It is possible to meet with scandal today among Catholics. We recall Christ’s prediction, “It must needs be that scandals come.” He knew human nature. Yet he did not excuse the guilty, for He added, “Woe to the world for temptations to sin![a] For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the man by whom the temptation comes! (Mt. 18:7). He wished to caution the faithful lest the occurrence of scandal disturb them in their faith. For Christian faith is not dependent on the integrity of ant individual or group. It is founded solely on reason, on revelation through the Son of God and the Bible, and on the guidance of the Holy Spirit through the Church which the Sod of God founded.
It is important to understand clearly that Christ our Lord never promised that His followers, even the appointed teachers, including the supreme head of the Church, would not inherit human nature, with its frailties and its pull downward as the effect of original sin. God gives to each individual the help which he needs, and then leaves each to choose whether he will be like Christ or join Christ’s enemies. St. Paul cautions all, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12).
Therefore, when we see scandal among the faithful or in the clergy, or read of such, we are indeed saddened, perhaps sorely shocked, and surely troubled at the thought of the possible evil effect on others. But in our faith we are not weakened. We pity the foolish Catholic who gives up the practice of his religion because he has had some misunderstanding with his pastor, or has found that some particular individual does not live up to expectations.
Adapted from William J. Grace, S.J., The Catholic Church and You: What the Church Teaches and Why. (Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Company, 1964, Second Edition, pp. 108-109). Imprimatur: William E. Cousins, Archbishop of Milwaukee, December 10, 1963.