A "Crisis" Becomes a "Deal" Breaker

Last night, Deal Hudson submitted his resignation as publisher of Crisis magazine, on the heels of a recent exposé in the National "Catholic" Reporter, that he had engaged in inappropriate behavior with a female student ten years ago while teaching at Fordham University.

Hudson maintains that the decision to resign was his own, but the Washington Times reports otherwise:

"...five of his most influential columnists pressured the board to get rid of him... [i]in addition, specific accusations of more recent sexual misconduct had come to the board's attention."

Among those who pressured Hudson to resign are Michael Novak and Ralph McInerney, two guys who started the magazine about twenty years ago and couldn't keep it going, until Hudson took over and made it into the success it is today.

There's a lesson in there somewhere.

Included in the Times article is a sample of McInerney's reasoning: "He withdrew from being an adviser to the White House, so one could conclude he should leave Crisis. If his presence had a negative effect on a Catholic campaign effort, certainly it'd affect a Catholic magazine."

Well, Doc, it might, if the Catholic Church were also a political entity like the Republican Party. But -- brace yourselves, everybody -- it's not, which reduces your comparison to apples and oranges. (Yeah, I know, I'm having to explain this to a Thomist, and one who's work I have long admired.)

Hudson will continue heading the Morley Institute, part of the Morley Publishing Group that owns Crisis. Meanwhile, he gets to find out who his real friends are:

"Advisory board member Peggy Noonan, a speechwriter for President Reagan who is volunteering her time with the Bush re-election effort, quickly canceled a speech she had agreed to give at the magazine's $250-a-plate fund-raiser last Friday night at the Willard Hotel.

"Many of Washington's best-known Catholics also boycotted the dinner, and there were many empty seats at the gathering of 330 people. Miss Noonan also turned down an annual award given by the magazine.

"Crisis then offered the award to the Rev James V Schall, a Georgetown University professor, and Mr McInerny, both of whom turned it down. The Rev Benedict Groeschel, 71, a widely known Franciscan author and lecturer, eventually agreed to receive it."

Wow, if I could only be one of "Washington's best-known Catholics," maybe I could have gotten that award. Then I'd get to make a speech. I could tell a stupid Irish joke, string together a few pious platitudes, take a few shots at well-known "lberals," and top it off with a rousing call to victory over the infidels. That would bring the house down. Or... I'd remind them that we were a gathering of sinners, and tell them why there shouldn't even be a head table. Then they could all get up and boycott me too.

Then, after they were gone, "Sal" and I would get out a few microwave containers and start scarfing up leftovers.

Now, to be fair (somebody has to), there is a case to be made for avoiding an association with scandal. Then again, I don't remember Hudson bragging about any of this. I wonder how many of those high-fallutin' cake-eaters in pinstripes and sequins* would stand tall, in the face of half as much scrutiny into their personal lives, as has Mr Hudson.

I can promise you, as I am writing this, that I couldn't.

You got a problem with that???

In his Confessions, St Augustine admits to having sex with his lover in a church before his eventual conversion. You suppose they'd boycott him too? After all, these are the jokers who think they've got it all figured out what's wrong in the Church and in the world today. When asked by a local newspaper to submit his answer to a similar question, Chesterton put it plainly:

"I am."

And so, Mr Hudson, if you're reading this, listen up! The biggest difference between you and half those clowns is... you got caught! Sooner or later, everybody does. If not in this life, certainly the next.

Look on the bright side; if you were as low on the food chain as the rest of us, you wouldn't still have a job!!!

So hang in there. It ain't over till it's over.

*This refers to those who boycotted the event, as opposed to the genuine human beings who showed up anyway.