Marisa Casagrande: I will believe in the truth of Fr. Joe

By  Marisa Casagrande
  • April 27, 2011

There was not a dry eye at Mass as Fr. Joe LeClair delivered his public apology at Ottawa’s Blessed Sacrament Church. This, following an article in the Ottawa Citizen that disclosed the most personal of Fr. LeClair’s financial records, described the lax financial control measures at Blessed Sacrament and insinuated that parish funds had been used to support his gambling habit. The picture was dire, the tone accusatory.

And I can just imagine the many conversations which have ensued. The debate might be about the merits of the Church, the priesthood, the number of priests being called out for wrongdoings.

There was a time when I too would have reacted to this story in such a way. For many years I had left the Church, believing it to be an outdated institution, way too top heavy to attract its future and imploding by its incessant focus on rules and ceremony. And then I attended Blessed Sacrament. The church was full — of young people, of music, full of good energy, or dare I say Spirit. And there was Fr. Joe and his gift of bringing the Gospel to life, of making it relevant to us today.

I had witnessed these things before. But this didn’t seal the deal for me. For me, it was the depths of Fr. Joe’s humanity and his humility that stood out. He was not only a priest, he was human, just as I. Struggling, just as I. And at times hopeful and joyful, just as I. This was not just one way. He was not all knowing and all perfect. He was being honest about who he was.

He spoke with an honesty I had never experienced in the Church. This was not just ceremony; there was substance here. And I had been on the hunt for substance, for truth, for a long time.

I watched a very humbled man walk down the aisle, head low, to the front of the parish where he delivered a tearful apology with the same honesty and sense of humanity I have grown to love. A man who walks the narrow path of serving others, in a world which seems to have forgotten grace.  

And I think to myself… how can our human nature stray this far? How can we have reached a point of having such little discernment? And mostly, how can our public institutions, our democracy and the tools on which it depends — a well-functioning media— have reached a point of having such little public trust? To expose a man’s personal struggles with no evidence of a public offence is just plain wrong. To paint a man so narrowly — a man who has given so much — is just so very, very, wrong. Have we lost our sense of compassion? Our ethics?

I do know this — truth is not packaged to sell. It doesn’t conform to constructed notions of right and wrong, good and bad. But we have a built‐in barometer for truth that silently informs as we make our way and experience this world.

Now just to be clear: I’m not making a claim about which of its aspects might be true or untrue. What I am saying is when we have lost the ability to see the whole person, when we have decidedly narrowed our vision only to that which makes the headlines, when we take actions to publicly humiliate on this basis, well, then we must question our intentions, we must reflect on the state of our nature. And we must ask ourselves difficult questions around whether we have served the greater good by these choices. This is the truth I am referring to. For when the dust settles and with it the media hype, it is this truth that lives on.

Our prayers are with you Fr. Joe.

(Casagrande is a parishioner at Ottawa’s Blessed Sacrament parish.)

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