The Truth is Harsh... and Charitable

by John Mallon - March 5, 2008

Reprinted with permission.

► Click here to read Marjorie Campbell's original column.

Father Thomas Euteneuer's remarks on Coach Majerus need to be read in perspective. Almost 50 million innocent people have been killed via abortion, methodically and deliberately. This state-sanctioned genocide has been occurring in the United States for 35 years. Even pro-lifers are vulnerable to being inured to this stark fact.

Under those circumstances, were Father Euteneuer's remarks uncharitable? They were certainly undiplomatic, but diplomacy has broken down; we are in a war. Jesus Himself wanted to be well-received, but the Scribes and Pharisees wouldn't have it. And so, when He saw their obstinacy, Hecalled them hypocrites and likened them to whitewashed tombs full of dead men's bones (Mt 23:27).

Was Jesus, the God who is Love and Truth itself, uncharitable? No, this is wake up language. Jesus also spoke at length about the flames of Gehenna. (Nowadays you can't mention hell and anyone's name in the same sentence without being accused of consigning them there. Without quibbling over words, Father Euteneuer did not consign Coach Majerus to hell.)

The most charitable thing to be said about the coach's publicly expressed remarks is that they were ignorant, and that he's extremely confused on the civil and moral order. The quotes attributed to him in the January 23 St. Louis Post-Dispatch were an embarrassment, and his moral "reasoning" should make any trained Jesuit blush.

In any case, Father Euteneuer should be applauded for using strong language to wake up the coach, and those who follow his unfortunate example. The Catholic Church has been largely – and tragically – testosterone-free in protecting the flock over the last 40 years, and this culture-wide emasculation has smothered one of our finest male instincts: the urge to protect women and children.

In the name of "political correctness" and "rights," women have been sexually exploited and abandoned to the abortionist's knife. Denouncing this and anyone who condones it is charity, and contains a fatherly – a priestly – concern for the eternal welfare of the misguided.

John Mallon is the director of public relations for Human Life International and a contributing editor for Inside the Vatican magazine. Visit his Web site at http://johnmallon.net.