I have a real problem with the linkage of pedophilia and the nature of the priesthood, and in an upcoming issue of "One Man Watching", I will take a fuller look at that debate. Today, though, I want to briefly raise a related but different warning flag. 

There is no question that anyone who sexually abuses a child is guilty of a horrific act, and there is no question that anyone who is guilty of such a thing ought to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

However, in a nation which prides itself on its credo of "innocent until proven guilty", the allegation of a sex crime seems to be exempt from this presumption. A person who is accused may be presumed innocent on the surface, but in reality, and certainly for those who are tried in the media, the presumption is of guilt. Even when an innocent person is cleared of the charges, the disproven allegation still hangs over their name and their reputation, often for years.

As we seek justice for the victims, and the appropriate punishment and treatment for the guilty, we need to remember the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin. Accused of molestation, he was ultimately cleared of all charges.

The fact is that not everyone who makes an allegation is a victim. It is a sad truth that there are those who will knowingly make false accusations. Some will desire money. Some will desire publicity. Some will bear animosity toward the Catholic Church. Some will see it the means by which to advance a political agenda. In order to see true justice be done, we need to remember to reserve judgment until all facts are known. Otherwise, we will give life to that which unjust, and we will do so on the backs of legitimate victims whose cries for justice we claim to heed.

Brad Pardee
Editor

Vince Lombardi, the famous coach of the Green Bay Packers in the 1960s, gave a speech called "What It Takes To Be #1". The entire speech can be found on the official Vince Lombardi website. There is a portion of the speech which read:

There is no room for second place. There is only one place in my game, and that's first place. I have finished second twice in my time at Green Bay, and I don't ever want to finish second again. There is a second place bowl game, but it is a game for losers played by losers. It is and always has been an American zeal to be first in anything we do, and to win, and to win, and to win.

Lombardi says, "I've never known a man worth his salt who in the long run, deep down in his heart, didn't appreciate the grind, the discipline," and there is a great deal of truth in this. However, when we reach the conclusion that anyone with discipline and hard work will win, the logical conclusion is that anybody who doesn't win isn't disciplined or isn't willing to work hard.

The fact of the matter is that our best is not always going to be better than someone else's best. No matter how disciplined and hard working I am, I will never beat Michael Jordan on the basketball court. His gifts on the basketball court are far greater than mine. The same could be said about Placido Domingo in opera.

It's also true that even people with equal gifts do not have equal opportunities to develop those talents. Take a youngster who lives in a gated suburb community, with financial resources for tools such as computers and a school district which draws the finest teachers. Compare that youngster to one with equal raw gifts who lives as a latchkey kid in a single-parent household in the inner city. He has no computer at home, simply getting to school and back while passing through violent crime-ridden streets is an achievement, and his teachers are the newest ones with the lowest seniority and those whose teaching skills have not earned them promotions and transfers. It would take extraordinary naivete to suggest that the second youngster requires solely enough discipline and hard work to make up the difference in the developing those gifts he has.

Finally, in any competition, there is ultimately only one winner. All four teams in the men's Final Four, as well as the four in the women's Final Four, needed hard work and discipline to make it this far. On Monday night, only one women's team and one men's team will be able to call themselves champions. Does that somehow mean that no other team worked as hard or had as much discipline? Not at all.

What is boils down to is that winning in a contest and winning in life are defined differently. Winning in a contest simply means scoring the most points in the game, and while hard work and discpiline are necessary to do that, they certainly don't guarantee it.

To win in life means to do our absolute best. Suppose I run a race. I've done all I could do to prepare myself physically, emotionally, and mentally. I've reached the limits of what my body is capable of. If you put me on the track against just about any track athlete, though, I'm going to come in second. By Vince Lombardi's definition, that makes me a loser. But if I've done all that I could, prepared the best I could, and given the best I had to give, I may not win the contest, but I will win in life.

There is an old saying about winning the battles but losing the war. If we focus solely on being better than everybody else, then even if we achieve that goal, our victory is only for the moment, until someone better comes along, as they always will. If we focus, however, on being better today than we were yesterday, and doing what is necessary today to be better yet tomorrow, until we reach the best that we are capable of, no matter what happens in the moment of the competition, we will be winners in life. Given a choice, I'll take winning for life over winning for the moment any day. Wouldn't you?