The goodness exists in everyone
By Father Larry Kramer of St. Paul of the Cross Catholic Church
Remember Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Town? It’s still around, near Omaha, Nebraska, with the welcome addition of girls in its name and purpose.
Father Edward J. Flanagan found himself called, with the approval of his superiors as long as he would raise the necessary money, to found a family-style home for abandoned children featuring cottages run by married couples, quite an innovation in the 1930’s and 40’s. His motto: “There is no such thing as a bad boy.”
One day the good Father thought he might have to revise that motto. Local police brought in an eight-year-old thug who seemed as tough as nails. It would be either Boys’ Town or reform school for the boy, so there he was, sitting in the priest’s office with a sullen look on his face. When Flanagan walked in and sat down, the boy muttered, “Well, a damn prayin’ Christian!”
The priest looked at the boy’s record. Horrible. It included things he hadn’t thought a young boy capable of. Was this at last a genuinely bad boy?
Then Someone Else took over and Flanagan found himself asking the boy for a description of a good boy. Why, one who always did what he was told and respected his teachers, came the answer.
“Well, that’s you,” said the priest. “You just had the wrong teachers and that wasn’t your fault. And you respected them and looked up to them and did everything they asked of you. So you are really a very good boy!”
A tear formed in the boy’s eye, followed by another and soon he was in the priest’s arms, crying like the baby he really was. “Nobody ever said anything like that about me, “ he sobbed.
That boy grew into a model citizen, not only of Boys’ Town, but of the broader community he might have plundered had it not been for a question posed by a priest.
I think of this story whenever I hear someone refer to another human being as “evil."
Remember Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Town? It’s still around, near Omaha, Nebraska, with the welcome addition of girls in its name and purpose.
Father Edward J. Flanagan found himself called, with the approval of his superiors as long as he would raise the necessary money, to found a family-style home for abandoned children featuring cottages run by married couples, quite an innovation in the 1930’s and 40’s. His motto: “There is no such thing as a bad boy.”
One day the good Father thought he might have to revise that motto. Local police brought in an eight-year-old thug who seemed as tough as nails. It would be either Boys’ Town or reform school for the boy, so there he was, sitting in the priest’s office with a sullen look on his face. When Flanagan walked in and sat down, the boy muttered, “Well, a damn prayin’ Christian!”
The priest looked at the boy’s record. Horrible. It included things he hadn’t thought a young boy capable of. Was this at last a genuinely bad boy?
Then Someone Else took over and Flanagan found himself asking the boy for a description of a good boy. Why, one who always did what he was told and respected his teachers, came the answer.
“Well, that’s you,” said the priest. “You just had the wrong teachers and that wasn’t your fault. And you respected them and looked up to them and did everything they asked of you. So you are really a very good boy!”
A tear formed in the boy’s eye, followed by another and soon he was in the priest’s arms, crying like the baby he really was. “Nobody ever said anything like that about me, “ he sobbed.
That boy grew into a model citizen, not only of Boys’ Town, but of the broader community he might have plundered had it not been for a question posed by a priest.
I think of this story whenever I hear someone refer to another human being as “evil."