THINK IT WOULD BE hard to deny that some people sitting in prison right now are innocent.1 In other words, a certain percentage of those behind bars were falsely convicted. Throughout history, I suspect that millions of people were put to death under false pretenses. In certain cultures, one’s punishment for a crime is getting one’s hand cut off. Imagine being forced to spend the rest of your life missing a hand because of a false accusation! When Saint Isaac Jogues and his companions were being tortured—for weeks—by the Iroquois, their fingers were often sawn off (and their tendons were ripped out). To keep them from bleeding to death, the Iroquois would cauterize their wounds.
Praise be to God, I’ve never been
the victim of a false accusation.
But how can any of us be certain
such a thing can’t occur?
How We Were Raised • Once somebody gets accused, even if the accusation is false, we tend to think of that person—forevermore—as “tainted” or “damaged goods” or “contaminated” or “not to be trusted.” I’m certainly guilty of that mentality. Do you agree this is how most of us were brought up? Do you agree our culture has taught us there is no forgiveness when it comes to accusations? But doesn’t our Holy Catholic Faith urge us to forgive one another? Are we2 not all sinners?
Those In Heaven • When it comes to those falsely accused, I can only imagine their suffering. I suspect many became saints by bearing that heavy cross. If memory serves, PADRE PIO was the victim of false accusations for decades because curial officials were jealous of him.
Internet Increases Libel • Here at Corpus Christi Watershed, we frequently witness tons of libel and defamation. Some of it this is so foolish it’s laughable. For instance, when people defend our organization online, certain unscrupulous cretins immediately accuse them of being “sock puppets.” They do this in spite of the fact that a 2-second Google search would reveal how wrong they are—but they don’t care. When people write emails to us, we often publish their letters anonymously. Because we redact the names, the same unscrupulous cretins declare the correspondence to be “fake.”
The opposite is also true. When we publish correspondence anonymously, certain readers attempt to guess the parties being referred to. When they guess incorrectly (and this is pointed out to them) they continue on as if nothing happened. They don’t learn their lesson. Moreover, they excuse their own libel without ever giving it another thought. [If my computer ever gets stolen, those folks are in trouble because I kept screenshots!]
Conclusion • Do you agree that we should pray for those who are falsely accused? Do you agree we should beg God to preserve us from such a cross? Do you agree we should spend less time thinking about how sinful others are and more time thinking about our transgressions? I don’t pretend to have answers. But in a world filled with so much slander and dishonesty, I’m convinced that innocent people are suffering. Perhaps some of our readers are among them!
1 Needless to say, I have no idea what the actual percentage is.
2 Please note: I’m not suggesting that priests or teachers guilty of serious crimes should be returned to positions of authority. Doing so would mean placing innocent children in danger. That’s not what I’m talking about. Indeed, we’d be gravely culpable if we allowed such abuse to continue.
