RogerEvansOnline.com

Scandal emanating from the White House is now so rife, that we are bound to become either wounded by it or hardened to it. As never before in my time, we are in danger of becoming merely cynical, which is not a humane state to operate in. A friend of mine has just published these words:

People tend to think of scandal as any public embarrassment that results from misbehavior. It’s a term of art for public relations, as people and institutions seek to “manage” scandal.

But the Catechism of the Catholic Church has a more exacting definition: “Scandal is an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil.” Far from being merely a misdeed held up for public opprobrium, a shocker, or a public relations nightmare to be managed, a scandal is specifically a wrongdoing which causes another to stumble and fall. The Greek word “scandalon” from which our English word scandal is derived means a snare of an enemy.