Forgive Them, Father, by Mary Cuff

By Mary Cuff, Crisis Magazine, Dec. 13, 2023

Mary Cuff is an independent scholar, wife, and homeschooling mother. She holds a PhD in American literature from the Catholic University of America and has published in the Southern Literary Journal, Five Points, Mississippi Quarterly, and Modern Age. She teaches online high school classical rhetoric courses at Homeschool Connections.

The hardest people to forgive are those men called to be our spiritual fathers and shepherds who are blatantly and publicly inflicting wounds on the mystical body of the Church.

A few weeks ago, as I was leaving church, I fell into step with a fellow mom. She had missed most of the liturgy due to a young child who decided that he had simply had enough right around the Gospel. I have been in this situation myself many times, and I figured an encouraging word was needed.

“I feel like I need to change my name and find a new parish after today,” she joked in response. ….

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