BishopAccountability.org
	The O'Donnell Case By C. J. Olsen Examiner May 19, 2009 http://www.examiner.com/x-9908-Seattle-Catholic-Examiner~y2009m5d19-The-ODonnell-case I've been asked to comment on the news story about Patrick O'Donnell, a former priest of the Spokane Diocese and the Seattle Archdiocese, who settled for $600,000 to avoid a civil trial against 24 people who claim to have been sexually abused by him, though a total of 66 came forward. The abuse is not the subject of the current inquiry; he has admitted it and apologized. The current inquiry regards the extent to which the Seattle Archdiocese knew of his proclivities when it accepted his transfer from Spokane. In court on May 18, retired Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen denied having known of O'Donnell's past, though O'Donnell was transferred from Spokane to Seattle for the express purpose of undergoing treatment for deviancy according to a Seattle Times report. Presumably the purpose of the inquiry is to establish how much liability the Seattle Archdiocese might be ordered to assume. I can't comment directly on the inquiry because I wasn't there at the time and I don't know any of the people involved. I can comment on an observation of the case made by a friend; that tragedy is bound to result when the Church expects certain humans--as a matter of routine--to practice superhuman virtue. And this is true. The Church was founded in part on tragedy, the tragedy of the Cross, when a Man was put to death by people who more or less willfully misunderstood his virtues. To live the perfect hope, perfect faith, perfect charity, perfect obedience, perfect humility, perfect chastity, and perfect poverty that priests are called for is, humanly speaking, simply impossible. They are called in the hope that they will do these things, not with their own strength alone, but with assistance from God, who promised to help those who serve. As a matter of faith, the assistance is there. As a matter of practice and of human weakness, not all priests unfailingly avail themselves of it. But to focus on the failures is not the main point for persons of faith. It requires no faith to hold forth on failure. Failure is, and the focus of faith is that which is not yet. Did Patrick O'Donnell merit any faith being placed in his ability to recover? Possibly not; but faith is not--or should not--be meted out solely on the basis of merit. The purest faith is that which is blind to merit. Prelates like Hunthausen are by the nature of their job in a difficult position. They are asked to demonstrate faith, yet they are also asked to deal with concrete matters such as sexual predation. Practicality says that failure is to be expected; faith says that, despite failures, good can come, even if we don't know what it is, and may not even live to see any of it. Faith is often--usually--betrayed. But it is the nature of faith to seek good even in the ruins wrought by betrayal. Faith has nothing. It is nothing. It possesses nothing and expects nothing; and for these very reasons it alone of all human qualities lays hold of immortality.
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