How would you describe a miserable human being in moral and ethical terms? One might think it is a lack of love or empathy for others or to shamelessly use another’s misfortune, sorrow or pain to their own advantage; like a politician exploiting groups of people for their own gain though they are bereft of any true sense of love of neighbor. In the religious realm it might be using faith to twist and cajole others into losing faith, defying gospel teachings and natural and religious moral norms in order to lead them to hell rather than to God. I suppose the damned are looking for as much company as they can get.

But I can’t help but think that the worst form of a diabolical personality are those who pretend to be good, righteous and loving while they are hiding beneath a mask their desire to hunt people down like prey: predators seem to be the worst and those who know them and ignore them are nearly as bad.

This is the situation in the Catholic Church at the moment and I cannot think of anything more miserable than predatory religious figures who are no more than wolves in sheep’s clothing or hirelings who ignore the wolves for money, favors and public acclaim. We are aware now that there are a number of bishops who live this way but it is astonishing to us that our very Pope may be among them as well. 

It might be easy to point a finger at the bishops who have devoured their own sheep and lambs but to imagine that the head of the bishops (the bishop of Rome and the Vicar of Christ Himself) might also be one of them is almost too much to fathom. And should it all turn out as being true in the coming months or years, we will have the poster boy of the most Miserable Human Being on the face of the earth. For if true, he is a diabolical narcissist, an actor par excellence and sadly the most miserable human being of our present era. There is nobody who is higher and who can fall further than the Pope of the Catholic faith and thereby his fall will be greater than scores of others who fall on a daily basis. 

Let us pray that if the allegations are true that he will bow out gracefully and that those other bishops may follow suit. Then just maybe these Miserable Human Beings will be forgotten and the Church may once again regain Her splendor (never actually lost) to the eyes of this fallen world that revels in the scandals of the Church.