Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
Imagining Evil

Imagining Evil

Last updated on: February 22, 2020 at 9:56 pm by Jeannine Pitas

Imagining Evil 2020-02-22T21:56:16-05:00 Jeannine Pitas

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The news came this morning. Another idol has fallen from his pedestal. Jean Vanier, a beloved spiritual writer, activist, and the world-renowned founder of L’Arche – an organization that strives to build community and promote the full social inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities – faces allegations of having abused six women over a period of many years. Given the climate we live in, I am disappointed but sadly not surprised.

“What a tough time it is to be a Catholic,” a translator acquaintance lamented to me recently while discussing the awkward conversations that can ensue if we reveal our religious identity in more secular circles. The stain on the Church appears to only be spreading. In my own hometown of Buffalo, NY, as in so much of the world, Catholics have been forced to reckon with a long history of clerical child abuse – coupled with a long history of systemic attempts to silence victims and hide the truth.

What do we do when confronted with such brutal realities, when we realize that our saints are really sinners, when we must reckon with the harm that has occurred within the Church we call home? Perpetrators must be brought to justice; victims’ suffering must receive due recognition; wherever possible, some kind of reparations must be made. But what are individual Catholics to do with the knowledge that those we’ve entrusted to lead us have instead betrayed us?

For me, one answer came at last year’s conference on the Catholic Literary Imagination. In a keynote lecture that to my ears sounded more like a poem, noted essayist Richard Rodríguez dared us to imagine the lived experience of those who seem the most monstrous. “We know nothing about the burden of these fallen priests,” Rodríguez said. “We don’t know their stories. What did they think they were doing? [….] We have no idea who they were, or what they suffered [….] Our imaginations have gone dull.” Most unsettling was his stark reminder that, no matter how heinous their crimes, they are still part of the same Church we claim to belong to. We can and should condemn their actions, but we cannot cast them off.

This is quite a disturbing thought. It is much easier to distance ourselves from the wrongdoers, to scoff in righteous indignation, to claim that we ourselves would never commit such heinous crimes. But every heinous criminal is as human as any of us. Perhaps we hold more in common with them than we would like to admit.

In his recently published collection of poems, Grotesque Tenderness, the Canadian poet Daniel Cowper dares to imagine the mind of a sexual abuser. The book’s first section, “The Life and Crimes of Sextus Tarquinius,” comprises thirteen poems based on the story of the famous Roman’s rape of Lucretia. However, once one starts reading these poems, we see that we are actually dealing with a Tarquin of our own times. As a child in 1942, the future rapist survives the horrors of the Krakow ghetto, struggling to understand how someone might hate him with no provocation:

Sextus asks: What do the Germans think we did?

Father shrugs. Someone should say we didn’t

the boy suggests. Then one day Mother’s gone,

Netta’s gone, Father sobs.

Heirlooms

evaporate. Father’s hands always hunting for his.

Then: I’ve paid someone to hide you. You’ll leave

tonight.

Later, we come to see this Tarquin as he grows up, learns to live with this trauma, and finds a kind of salvation behind the lens of a camera, a realm where he can gain a sense of autonomy and control. He eventually becomes a famous filmmaker and starts a new life in California, only to face yet another horror that is beyond most of our imaginations: his wife, “Eve,” is violently killed, her body mutilated. It is not long after this that he meets an adolescent Lucretia. Unhealed from his trauma, he goes on to traumatize her:

Notes for the Sentencing

1977 / Mulholland Drive

“When Lucretia arrived she looked like the boneless

parts of a hand pressed on a flashlight.

We shared a quaalude in my studio. Like ale clarified

with isinglass, as the chemicals took effect

they made her more translucent. Looking down at her

was like looking at you, Eve, through moving water

and she moaned no unfairly using your voice,

and no again, as if complaining to herself

like you would. I felt again the sunset

that coppered you and the madrona branches

that night we camped and fought in the uplands.

After our anger melted on our tongues like salt,

you and I lay down in a pile of arbutus leaves

and bark that crackled into anxious breath.

I wanted you but you turned away.

When I pulled you near you fought back

silently until I paired your limbs with my limbs

and made you couple with me. Even then you hissed

no to yourself, and no again,

until we flinted off a third heartbeat between us.

You held me while we started to overlap

in the fluttering thing that unfolded inside you.

I thought I smelt again spiced gasps of leaves and bark

leaning over this girl I wanted

who was sulky from being stoned

and somehow lit up with you.

After Lucretia left, saying nothing, I slept,

dreaming a thing that was dead

and had always been dead.

A face like peeled fruit and ribs

of long grey worms that snaked out blindly

locating what they like by sense of touch.”

I am a real fan of some of Roman Polański’s films. Knife in the Water, an exploration of classism within Poland’s newly established communist regime after World War II, is a brilliant character study; The Pianist, which doubles as a biography of famed musician Władysław Szpilman and an evocation of Polanski’s own story, is one of the best recent witnesses we have to the Holocaust and the Polish experience of World War II. Nevertheless, it is hard to appreciate this artist’s work while knowing that he is also a man who drugged and raped a child. Can I really separate the artist from the man? It’s the same question I had to ask when, in the wake of #metoo, bad news came out about several authors my students have enjoyed reading.

I still have not found an answer to this dilemma. Cowper’s poetry, however, goes beyond this question to ask a much harder one: how exactly did the man come to commit this crime? What was in his mind? The purpose is not to justify Polański’s actions in any way, but rather to imagine the source of his evil, exploitative impulse – an impulse that unfortunately lies within us all.

“Media coverage often paints sexual predators as freaks or monsters impelled by perversions alien to the normal male. The implicit assumption (that normal men are incapable of similar sexual misconduct) helps us to distance ourselves (and men we like) from the identified wrongdoers,” says Cowper in an afterword to the book.

“However, while that assumption might be reassuring, it strikes me as untrue and unhelpful. I believe that acknowledging and understanding our innate potential for monstrosity is a crucial step towards preventing that potential from being realized.”

I am extremely grateful to Cowper for daring to reckon with this issue. It is a courageous and necessary step. In the #metoo era, there has been a focus on the victims of abuse – victims who for a very long time were forced to remain silent, who often still are not believed. Cowper reminds us that there are no victims without perpetrators, and unfortunately, these perpetrators are not all that different from you and me. He has dared to imagine the truth of evil, which nearly always justifies itself under a guise of good – or at least justifiable – intentions.

This desire to imagine evil in order to understand it and recognize its presence among us becomes harder when dealing with religious leaders who commit these crimes, as they are the ones we often charge with a special kind of moral authority. However, Richard Rodríguez eagerly reminds us that at the end of the day, this authority belongs to God alone. “Before their power was removed, before we knew their secret, they were truly priests. This is our faith as Catholics,” he said during his talk. “We also say a decadent Renaissance pope who married his daughter was a true pope — not because of him, but because of the grace of Jesus. He could baptize […] When we found out [that these priests] were sinners, we didn’t ask for our money back; we didn’t say we had to be baptized again. We knew we’d been baptized by a sinner. It’s the most remarkable thing – how the grace of God overwhelms our failures.”

Can the grace of God overwhelm the failures of Jean Vanier? Can it overwhelm the failure of so many who have you abused others? Outside the church, can it overwhelm the failure of Roman Polański and so many others who have abused their privilege and power? Can it overwhelm us when we do the same?

If what believe is true, the final answer must be yes.

Previous Post

February 1, 2020

Spontaneous Abortions and Moral Theology

Next Post

March 14, 2020 Hoarding

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 2019 A Consistent Ethic of Life Aaron Weldon Abortion absurdity Abuse Scandal Academics Adoption Advent Africa agreement/disagreement with Church teaching Alexander Schmemann Alexham Alterity America Amnesty International Anarchism angels Anglicanism Animals Annual Statistics Anthony Anxietas Apocalyptic Apophatic Appalachia Aquinas Art Atheism Atonement Augustine Authority Baptism Beauty Bible biblical criticism biblical scholarship Bioethics Bishops Black Catholics Black Theology Blackadder Blogs Books Breastfeeding Brett Salkeld Buddhism Bush administration Byzantine Catholic Calvinism Canada Canon Law Capital Punishment Capitalism Caryll Houselander Catholic Blog Awards Catholic Blogging Catholic League Catholic Social Teaching Catholic Worker Movement Catholicity CFL Charity Children Chris West Christ and Culture Christian Democracy Christian Unity Christmas Christology Church Church Doctrine Church History Climate Change Cohabitation Colbert Collegiality Communion Communism Comparative Theology Competition Conferences conscience conscience rights Consequentialism Consistent Life Ethics Consumerism Contraception Contrition Conversion Converts Coptic COVID-19 Creation Critical Thinking Cross Cuba Culture Culture of Death Culture of Life Darfur David Cruz-Uribe David Wheeler-Reed Death Death Penalty Democracy Demons Desert Fathers Devil Dialogue dignity Disability Disarmament discernment Discipleship discrimination Dissent Distributism Division Doctrine Domestic Church Dorothy Day Double Effect Doubt Down syndrome Driving Early Church Easter Eastern Churches Ecclesiology Economics Economy Ecumenism Education El Salvador Election Election 2020 Ellul Embryonic Stem Cell Research Empire Energy Enlighenment Environmentalism Ephraim Radner Episcopal Church epistemology Equality Eschatology Ethics Eucharist Europe Euthanasia Evangelization Evil Evolution Excommunication F.X. Durrwell Facism Facts Fair Trade Faith Family Fashion Feddie Feminism Feminist theology Fertility Fetal Rights Fiction Film Finances First Things flags Folk Religion Food Foreign Affairs Forgiveness Frank Sheed Free Speech Freedom gay & lesbian persons Genocide George W. Bush George Weigel Gerald L. Campbell Girard/Mimetic Theory Global Warming Globalization Gnosticism Good Friday Grace Gratitude Greed Grey Cup 2009 Guadalupe Guest Post Guest Posts Gun Control Gustave Martelet Habitat for Humanity Hans Urs von Balthasar Harry Potter Hate Speech Health Health Care Healthcare Heather King Hebrew Bible Henri de Lubac Henry Karlson Herbert McCabe Heresy HHS Mandate Controversy History Holidays Holiness Holy Spirit Homiletics Homily Homosexuality Hope Hospitality How Far Can We Go? How Far Can We Go? Human Person Human Rights Humanae Vitae Humility Humor Hunger Hunting Identity Idolatry Ignacio Ellacuría Imagination Immigration In Memoriam Income Inequality Inculturation Indigenous People Individualism Inklings Intellect Interdependence Internet Interpretation Interviews Introduction Iraq War Islam Israel Jain James Alison James Martin Jazz Jesus Christ Jews Joe Biden Joe Hargrave Johann Baptist Metz John Allen John Henry Newman John Paul II John the Baptist John XXIII Jonathan Josef Pieper Joseph (the husband of Mary) Joseph Bernardin Joseph Ratzinger Josh Brumfield Journals Joy Judgment Just War Justice Kari Lundgren Karl Rahner Katerina Ivanovna Kenya Keynes Kingdom of God Kyle R. Cupp Labor Language Latin America Law Leanne Ogasawara Legion of Christ Leisure Lent Liberalism Liberation Theology Libertarianism Libya Lies Life life & dignity & responsibility of the human person Literature Little Way Liturgical music Liturgical Year Liturgy Living Simply Living Wage Local Church Lombard Lord of the Rings Louis Dupre Love M.Z. Magic Magisterium Mark DeFrancisis Mark Gordon Marriage Martin Luther Martin Luther King Jr. Martyrdom Marxism Mary Masculinity Matt Talbot Matthew Fish Matthew Levering McCain Media Memorial Day Mennonites Mental Illness mercy Michael Iafrate Middle East militarism Miroslav Volf Mitt Romney Modesty Moral Theology Morality Mormonism Morning's Minion Mother Teresa Music Muslims Natalie Nate Wildermuth Nationalism Native Americans Nature Nazis Neuhaus New Evangelization New York City News NFP nihilism Nonviolence Not Abortion Nova's Ordo Nuclear weapons Nuns Obama Occult Old Age Opus Dei Ordination ordination of women original sin Orthodoxy Oscar Romero Other Voices Pacifism Palestine Palin Papacy Papal Peace Messages Papal Social Encyclicals Particular Affections Partisanship Patriotism Paul Paul Ryan Paul VI Peace Pentimento persecution Personalism Phantastes Philosophy PKD Planned Parenthood Pluralism Poetry Policraticus Politcal Apathy Politics Poll Pope Benedict XVI Pope Francis Pope John Paul II Pope Leo XIV Population Postcolonialsim Poverty Power Prayer Preaching Predictions Predictions for 2012 President Barack Obama priestly formation & discernment Pro-Life Progress Prophetic Witness Proportionalism Public Diplomacy Public Policy Question Quotes Rachel Maddow Racism Radical Catholic Mom Radical Catholicism Raymund Schwager Real Catholic TV Real Presence Reconciliation Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange Religion religious freedom Responsibility Ressourcement Resurrection Rick Garnett Ridiculous Crap You Never Thought You'd See Robert Barron Roe v. Wade Roman Curia Rome Russia Sacraments Saints Salvation History Sam Harris Sam Rocha Same-sex Marriage Saskatchewan Roughriders Satire School of the Americas Science Scripture Seamless Garment Second Vatican Council Seeing Sex sexual violence Sexuality Sia Sin social justice Social Security Socialism Society of Jesus Sofia Loves Wisdom Solidarity Sophia soteriology Soutenus Spirituality Sports St. Dismas St. Joseph Stanley Hauerwas Statistics Stimulus Suffering Sunday Reflections Supernatural Supreme Court Symbolism Syria Taxing Technology Terrorism The State The Tea Party The Trump Administration Theological Anthropology Theology Theotokos Thomas Merton Throwaway Culture Tim Muldoon Tim Riley Tim Tebow Time Titian Tolkien Torture Toys Trade Traditionalism Transgender Transportation Transubstantiation Trinity Truth TV U.S. Affairs Uncategorized Unions unity among people who disagree US Catholicism USCCB Usury Utilitarianism Utopia Valentine's Day Vatican Vatican II Veterans Vicarious Suffering Video Violence Virgin Mary Vocations Voluntary Associations Voluntary Poverty Voting Vox Nova vox nova blog war War and Peace War Strategy Wealth Weirdness Welfare state Women Women Priests Work Woundedness Youth

Select a Month June 2026 May 2025 February 2025 January 2025 July 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 July 2023 March 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 November 2021 September 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was cast into a fiery furnace but was unharmed?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Daniel Elijah and Elisha Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego Moses, Aaron, and Joshua