The Moral Compass And Subsequent Musing

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There are some things that happen that are beyond any sort of glib reaction. The Holocaust or 9/11; what has just been discovered in Austria. You can't blame people for not having imagined the previously incredible depths of depravity to which the Devil will tempt people: in fact not being able to imagine these sorts of thing is an indication that the moral compass is pointing in the right direction.

If I'm right, then the Pope's reaction (both as Cardinal Ratzinger and subsequently) to the clerical abuse scandal is indicative of a moral compass which points unswervingly north: he had literally not imagined that this could happen.

Now: Josef Ratzinger is a holy man and as such will be a special target of the Devil. He will have known all sorts of temptation. I wonder if part of the support that God gives to the truly holy is a Guardian Angel whose job is to keep them truly innocent. Of course he (this is the truly holy man or woman now, not JR personally) is tempted: of course at times he will succumb to temptation; but the temptations that he undergoes are appropriate to his holiness, and aren't all tabloid and vulgar like mine are.

When, in early 1945, the Nazi CO of his batallion asked the new recruits what they wanted to be when they grew up, most of them answered "Fighter Pilot" or "General"; JR answered "Parish Priest". I wish GKC were alive to write about him.