Some people are quick to judge, and some remarks are designed to hurt. A month ago I received a letter from someone I haven\u2019t met but who is nonetheless convinced of all my faults and more. She wrote to tell me how outraged she was about how she sees our church approaching its work in the local community.<\/p>\n
My chief sin, it turns out, is that I\u2019m not a certain predecessor of mine. \u201cYou have turned that lovely, caring community run by lovely gentle gentlemen in my time, into a modern-day business, bent on efficiency,\u201d she asserted. It seems the glorious amateurs have been replaced by hard-nosed professionals\u2014me chief among them. \u201cWhen I think of the saints who worked there, I could weep.\u201d The rhetorical dial went up a couple of notches: \u201cShame on you.\u201d And then the big ending: \u201cDon\u2019t sleep easy in your bed tonight. And tomorrow roll up your sleeves and do some of the dirty work.\u201d<\/p>\n
She didn\u2019t explain precisely what this dirty work is. It took me back to a rather conflictual relationship many years ago, when a parishioner detonated the nuclear judgment: \u201cYou have failed this community as a priest.\u201d No answer to that. The scar abides.<\/p>\n
I got an insight into the dirty work later the same day….<\/p>\n