THE P RTAL
May 2015
Page 24
Now tell me if I
have got this wrong
Some personal queries by Geoffrey Kirk
Cardinal Kasper
has informed us that Mercy is ‘an essential
attribute of God’. (I am not so sure about the ‘essential’, but that may be a
Thomistic quibble). He goes on to say that this necessarily leads to an enhanced
degree of pastoral compassion for divorced people and those in other irregular relationships (for example, gay
couples). For many this is uncontentious. Only an arid legalism, they say, could contradict such generosity. It
is a view which certainly accords with the movement in Western culture which has largely exempted adultery
(for example) from public censure; and where casual cohabitation is rapidly becoming the norm of sexual
relationships. There will soon have grown up a generation which simply does not comprehend the nature
and purpose of marriage. The narrative of the church’s teaching about sex will have been handed over to the
likes of Diarmaid McCulloch.
Why are liberal churchmen merciful
about some things and not others?
It is a question which genuinely puzzles me. Is there
a plausible and coherent answer out there? You can
But, all that apart, the question has to be: why is the imagine how dispiriting it would be to discover that
dialectic of mercy so observably variable? Why are there is no explanation for this blatant discrepancy
liberal churchmen merciful about some things and not beyond the desire, in both cases, to fall into line with
others? I am thinking, of course, about child sexual the ambient secular culture.
abuse. In that case, not only is there no mercy for the
offender (or any statute of limitation, as it appears);
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
but no mercy also for those pastors who have sought
to show mercy to the offenders.
Bishops who were very far from condoning the sin,
but sought to show compassion to the sinner, have
been hounded and discredited. And the church has
been made to seem conniving and hypocritical. The
feeding frenzy which has overtaken the secular world
has tragically infected us all.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall obtain me &7