Offices that require a great soul.

I saw this exchange recently on Twitter:

Father V@father_rmv Nov 19

'I do not speak rashly, but as I feel and think. I do not think that many bishops are saved, but that those who perish are far more numerous. The reason is that the office requires a great soul. For there are many things to make a bishop swerve from rectitude, and he requires great vigilance on every side.' (St. John Chrysostom)

Edward Peters@canonlaw Nov 20

I think this is right. I have been reflecting lately on the dread that should fill one’s heart when faced with the prospect of taking on an ecclesiastical or secular governing role. The power of office, and thus the personal responsibility for wielding it, is so enormous.

This was of course back in November, so this has been in the hopper for a while.

These two gentlemen were pondering things within the Catholic Church, with one being a Priest and the other a noted Canon Lawyer.  They were rather obviously unhappy with some of the things in circulation right then, and there were a lot.  Peters in particular has made some other comments like that from around that time.

I'm not going to comment on Bishops, but I am going to comment on politicians.

Catholic theology holds that lying is sinful and that it can be a grave sin.  Yet we've seen some whoppers from Catholic politicians recently. Take Elise Stefanik, for example.

Elise Stefanik. Lying bad example.

Kristen Welker:  "Do you think it was a tragic day? Do you think that the people who stormed the Capitol should be held responsible to the full extent of the law?"

Elise Stefanik: "I have concerns about the treatment of January 6 hostages."

Ms. Stefanik, you are a Catholic and lying on something like this is a grave sin.

And you are a mother.  Your child is learning to be reprehensible through you. 

Ms. Stefanik's behavior is appalling. Assuming she has a brain in her head, and takes her religion even a little seriously, she ought to be recanting this after standing in the Confession line.

And note, a person is obligated to attempt to rectify the impact of their sinful behavior where they can.  

For most people, that doesn't amount to much.  A run-of-the-mill Catholic can go to Confession, receive absolution, and that's pretty much it.  But;

Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.

Luke, 12: 47-48.

Stefanik isn't the only one, there are lots of examples.  On the right, there are Catholic politicians who are going along with populism as it's the current, and holding their tongues on things they shouldn't.  On the left, there are Catholic politicians who support infanticide and gender mutilation, as that's to their political benefit.

Anyhow, just watching politics these days, it's hard not to see the system as broken.  Watching Catholic politicians, it's hard not to view many of them as having made moral compromises that they may pay for eternally.

Indeed, such is the case it seems for politicians in general.  John Barrasso, physician turned politician, Catholic turned Protestant, endorsed Trump last week. Why?  Well, almost certainly for political reasons.  Barrasso probably doesn't admire Trump, and he knows the election isn't stolen.

So politicians feel compelled to tell people what they want to hear, or those more powerful than themselves what they think that person wants to hear. And at some point you go from something like "no dear, that dress doesn't make you look fat", to something that grossly departs from the truth.  And then you become somebody like Stefanik, who tells whoppers she almost certainly doesn't believe, and manages to choke it down and still go to Mass on Sunday, and who tells her little one that the truth matters.

And indeed, the truth does matter.

A lesson for all of us, I suppose.