Fair and Balanced – Catholic Exchange on Deal Hudson

The reporter attempts to justify it by taking Deal Hudson to task for revealing that Ono Ekeh, an employee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was hosting a “Catholics for Kerry” website in violation of the pro-life position of the Church. Ekeh subsequently resigned, and the reporter’s sympathies lay with Ekeh, “a father of three young children, [who] had lost his job.” But the well of his sympathy is not deep enough for the children of Deal Hudson. The world is cruel, and with this article archived on the Internet now, it will be almost impossible to shield them from being humiliated by it.

Deal Hudson has admitted to having “committed a serious sin.” The incident caused him to lose his tenure at Fordham and to pay damages in the tens of thousands of dollars. In his response to the story he said, “I recognize that I have let countless people down and have brought scandal to myself, my family, and my Faith. For this, I beg your forgiveness.”

The decision of NCR editor Tom Roberts to rip apart that curtain violated Deal Hudson as well as others harmed in the original incident, and it compounded the tragedy, ensnaring Roberts’s own soul.

In his response, Deal Hudson portrayed his becoming a confidant of the Bush team as something he was tapped for rather than as something he actively sought. Be that as it may, it is surely the fact that regardless of whether he put himself forward or was brought into the limelight, he has known all along about this sordid incident lurking in the background, and he could have demurred — it is our opinion that he should have. Poor judgment on his part left his vulnerabilities open to attack, and it is therefore correct for him to say that he let many people down. But even as we forgive, we beg our fellow Catholics to regard this as a cautionary tale.

If you are a Catholic who is vetting someone for a position of trust, especially in the public eye, have the prudence to ask him or her: “Is there anything in your past that might disqualify you? Is there anything that might come to light and create a scandal?”