Mary H. Hall: Questions of myth and fact

While elements of the Roman Catholic Church may go in different directions, there is a long history of close association between that communion and the state. Of some note, the conservative members of the current U.S. Supreme Court all have had some Catholic formation. This would school them to protect the office of the presidency regardless of who is president, as that is how Catholics are taught to navigate their church hierarchy. This approach can help parishioners to get through it if, for example, their parish priest should have an alcohol addiction.

It was also, for years, an approach Catholics used in navigating clergy sex abuse of children. In a play entitled “Doubt: A Parable,” which was first staged in 2004, an experienced — some might say, battle-hardened — nun realizes in 1964 that a priest has harmed a kid; but, the most she can do to address the pathology is to engineer a move so that the clergy member in question will become some other people’s problem.

There exist parallels between the reverence people accord to a pope and that which many give to a president of the United States. In either case, a sort of myth can coincide imperfectly with the facts of who the officeholder is. In reading “The Dark Side of Camelot,” I have asked myself if Camelot ever had a light side; but Americans adore Jack Kennedy, whose family protects his legacy. In administrations since 1963, all of the presidents have had their problems, including George H.W. Bush who, in some people’s view, might have walked on water. An issue always, for those displeased with a given officeholder, can be if it is possible to endure that person’s tenure so that our system of governance may hold together.

Notwithstanding all such questions of myth and fact, the Supreme Court is bound to uphold the Constitution. The Founders did not intend the presidency to encroach on other branches of the federal government. As Madison wrote in The Federalist No. 48, they meant it to be “carefully limited, both in the extent and the duration of its power.”

Mary H. Hall

South Hadley