Absolutely correct. If our goal is human completeness and growth, then we, along with our children, must be prepared to navigate the “challenging” and uneasy routes essential for achieving that.

Defining sin

For numerous individuals, when a Catholic author discusses feelings of shame, it often elicits an eye roll or a sigh along with a quip about “Catholic guilt,” but that response reflects mental laziness. “Catholic guilt” serves as a trivial, clichéd joke that has detrimental effects on the portrayal and societal perception of a well-developed conscience; it offers minimal appeal to those younger than my own boomer cohort. It seems improbable that individuals receiving religious education or Catholic schools over the last three decades, many do not even grasp the concept of what “Catholic guilt” entails. The accusation has transformed into a thoughtlessly simplistic attack levied against a genuine issue, yet one that is now deemed off-limits for discussion — the reality of sin. The reality of sin and our personal responsibility for its consequences.

Certain individuals will respond to these terms — shame, guilt, sin, accountability — with an innate and deep-seated aversion, contending that although shame and guilt are bothersome to the conscience, sin is overly subjective and too intertwined with Christian over-scrupulosity to be clearly defined, while accountability can solely be delineated by those in authority.

Interestingly, the talented author and self-identified atheist Terry Pratchett provided us with a fantastic foundation for recognizing sin in his wildly imaginative book “Carpe Jugulum” where the aged, pipe-smoking Granny Weatherwax teaches the young Quite Reverend Mightily Oats about the topic.

“… wrongdoing, young man, occurs when you treat others as objects. This includes how you treat yourself. That’s the essence of wrongdoing.”

“It’s much more complex than that –“

“No. It isn’t. When individuals claim that matters are much more intricate than that, they imply they are becoming concerned that they won’t appreciate the reality. It begins with people considering things.”

“Oh, I’m certain there are more severe offenses –“

“But they begin by perceiving individuals as objects. …”

Granny has undoubtedly grasped the essential truth of sin and the source of nearly all our failures. As Pratchett himself illustrated, it is not necessary to be religious, or even a believer of any kind, to recognize and accept this ethical foundation: Individuals are not objects, and when we overlook this, we can descend into often distressing sin.

Addressing aggression

If, regardless of our religious beliefs or secular views, we can come to a consensus that it is ethically unacceptable to regard individuals as mere objects, could that assist us in addressing the escalating, unstructured violence and meaningless human degradation surrounding us?

Indeed, this is where concentrated focus and compromise become essential — focus that recognizes our mutual worries regarding societal disorder and the approaches to tackle it, paired with sufficient collaboration for individuals to consciously refrain from their instinctive reactions to feel offended by clumsy language in order to contribute to the greater goal. This may involve collectively agreeing that — despite the extensive discussions surrounding the immorality of expressing a “wrong” viewpoint or showing disrespect for a “right” one — there is insufficient dialogue about our moral obligations to refrain from stealing from one another; we should not push individuals to the ground; we ought not to ridicule or intimidate anyone whose struggles we have not faced; we ought not to exploit our bodies or those of others — we should not objectify individuals in any capacity, even by creating videos of their errors or misfortunes and sharing them for profit or merely for “likes.”

These “clear” points must be announced without bias and subsequently accepted together as legitimate and significant ethical stances. This is the method — without declaring loyalty to a political viewpoint or a specific religion, or any faith whatsoever — communities can initiate the journey of developing accountable social and personal consciences.

While that is crucial, developing our consciences involves not merely listing all the actions we ought to avoid, or all the ways in which we individuals can let ourselves or others down, but also recognizing the significance of accountability, and envisioning what that could entail beyond demands for “increased police presence, longer prison sentences.”

Additional police presence could have indicated that an officer was close to that Orthodox church in Queens. However, it would not have addressed the internal motivation, seemingly unopposed, that prompted Jayvaun Prince to commit his disgraceful alleged action.

So, how should we handle Jayvaun and his undeveloped, shame-immune sense of right and wrong? Keep in mind, he is merely 16 and has faced arrest five times. Should we incarcerate him, where — unless he faces physical and sexual harm — he will merely sharpen his skills at being more problematic?

Wouldn’t that simply be discarding him like an object?

Forming consciences

During his time in police detention, Jayvaun tried to take his own life unsuccessfully. What parent among us can observe him and his situation and not feel, “This child is in distress; he requires support.”

Even without being a theologian or a healthcare expert, it’s clear to me — as just a parent — that this teenager requires individual attention and supportive direction towards improvement. mental health and ethical well-being. However, how can we assist in shaping his moral compass? How do we guide him to despise his offenses and the unclear impulses that drive them, while also preserving the belief that he can still elude a future confined to shackles and prisons — that transformation, particularly at his stage of life, remains attainable?

Innovative responsibility is a factor in this situation. Instead of dismissing Jayvaun’s potential with a prison sentence, maybe he should “serve time” (supervised, of course) at a medical facility or rehabilitation center where his victim and others in similar situations are striving to restore their lives and comprehend the profound, enduring consequences of his fleeting actions. Perhaps he ought to be called upon to assist in providing food to those who are unable to feed themselves because of trauma inflicted by violence, or observe them as they take their initial tentative, shaky steps. Perhaps he needs to witness the frustration of families confronting such injuries, and the dread and vulnerability that victims of senseless violence endure throughout their lives.

Maybe he must confront his own victim and understand that she is unable to forgive him for what he has inflicted upon her life, or — if grace exists, and grace is indeed a genuine concept — that she is capable of it.

Genuine conscience development can initiate from that point, allowing Jayvaun to experience the profound feelings of authentic shame and true regret that arise from observing the consequences of our selfish actions and our thoughtless neglect for another’s humanity. Genuine humility can arise from involvement, even in the least significant manners, in the tidying up of our own disarray.

And modesty and regret can serve as foundations for positive transformation. Encountering the suffering of others might even — elevating the concept to its zenith — motivate a distressed young man to seek a life dedicated to aiding such individuals and the education he would have to accomplish it.

Seeking a solution

I fully recognize that this seems like an unrealistic fantasy and that there would be countless specifics involved in developing a program like this and its derivatives. However, please avoid brushing off these ideas as mere wishful thinking, particularly if you’re not open to innovative thinking yourself. Instead, why not envision such a program and attempt to identify all of its potential and obstacles?

Yes, it would likely imply home detention (or transitional facility) confinement along with monitoring devices and an individual from law enforcement or social services accompanying him to and from the healthcare facilities. This would entail safeguarding Jayvaun from the anger of victims and their relatives. It would involve mental health experts and perhaps parental-type volunteers reaching out to him and inquiring about his feelings regarding these matters, and genuinely paying attention to his responses.

It would be astonishingly tough. It would be extraordinarily demanding. It would be contentious — indeed, contentious — but it could represent the kind of socially-absorbed, collaborative parenting that this adolescent (and apparently generations) truly requires to establish a moral compass and understand responsibility. Hopefully, after witnessing the human devastation caused by reckless and aggressive past actions, Jayvaun and individuals akin to him might develop an understanding of how they envision their futures.

We are all worried about the path our society is following. Everyone is expressing that “action is needed,” yet we recognize that the measures currently in place are ineffective. Cities are deteriorating as local and state lawmakers enact bail reform (or the absence of bail reform) into legislation. District attorneys hesitate to prosecute offenses carried out without traditional lethal weapons (which excludes pushes down stairs onto concrete) due to overcrowded prisons that fail to provide genuine rehabilitation. Additionally, police forces are outnumbered. And they are aware of it.

Adopting fundamental human ethics

The traditional civil systems are failing; they are ineffective in a society that flourishes without moral awareness. The leadership lacks innovation. Perhaps it is time for the populace — fragmented, yet capable of reaching consensus on fundamental human morality identified here — to not only envision an alternative approach and propose inventive options, but also collaborate to assist a developing generation in grasping essential truths: that, in stark contrast to what they’ve been led to believe for many years, it’s acceptable and even vital to experience guilt when they have committed a serious wrong — such as treating someone as if they were an object. That it’s beneficial and constructive to feel shame — to allow that persistent inner voice to express, “you shouldn’t have acted that way; that was incorrect,” particularly if it results in avoiding that mistake, not falling short in that sinful manner, again.

While I compose this, our Ivy League universities are tumultuous with regular, frequently unpleasant protests regarding the Israel-Hamas war. At Yale, a journalism student reporting on an incident involving a young woman who was Jewish was stabbed in the eye with a Palestinian flag wielded by a male activist. The young man fled the scene after causing her harm.

She wasn’t gravely injured, but whether the contact was deliberate or unintentional, I couldn’t shake the thought that had he been found and brought to the emergency center as well — and made to wait in the ER alongside her, observing the examinations and experiencing her anxiety regarding both her vision and her future safety — it could have fostered accountability. If the young man could realize that he had treated a person as if they were insignificant, it might open up space for those uncomfortable, suppressed feelings that lead to regret to develop within him. It might afford him the opportunity to reflect on how ideological fervor — to which his reckless activism is unlikely to produce any genuine effects — has, not infrequently, led him down an unthinking course of devaluing humanity.

It would have been beneficial for him to reflect on all that earlier; as frequently occurs with ideological movements, he ultimately — and far too late — recognizes his own humanity, his own existence diminished as well.

Restoring human emotions

In an episode of “Life is Worth Living,” titled “Liberal or Reactionary,” Bishop Fulton Sheen warned against the perilous notion “in believing there are no ill individuals … only an ill society.” He wasn’t rejecting the idea that a society can be unhealthy — spiritually, mentally, and materially weak, as ours seemingly is. He aimed to emphasize the importance of individuals and their uniqueness, asserting that if we aspire to exist in a civilized world, then the individual must be acknowledged. If every strand of hair on our heads has been counted as Jesus taught (Mt 10:26), then we all, as individuals, are essential for the correct alignment of the world.

Lives of individuals engaged in collaboration with one another energize society similarly to how individual atoms, working in unison, energize and support the human body and the specific environments we occupy.

When we fracture a single atom, we transform into the annihilator of realms. Shattering a single person yields the same outcome, one human realm at a time. If we damage sufficient individuals — and perceiving others as objects solely diminishes us, never elevates — we unleash chaos on earth.

Conditions are dire, and we can all concur on that. What once functioned effectively is no longer effective: That much is clear to us as well. “Action must be taken by someone,” we often remark.

Indeed, you are a person, and I am a person, and the places of worship, the bars, the executive suites, and the city centers are filled with individuals — a multitude of whom are simply seeking a concept, an answer, that they can support.

My intention is to recover the emotions that have been discarded and overlooked, and to present them to a lost generation. This is necessary because awareness must be developed before it can be elevated.

I’m receptive to any suggestions on how this can be achieved, or even superior ideas. Don’t hesitate to communicate them with me, if you wish: escalia@osv.com.