Hubbard’s complicated legacy prompts reflection on institutions

I’m grateful for the editorial on the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany Bishop Emeritus Howard Hubbard (“The good, bad shepherd,” Aug. 24). Many Catholic leaders, whether or not they were child abusers themselves, showed excessive devotion to preserving the Catholic Church as an institution, thereby sabotaging the Catholic Church as a set of ideas and values.

My work on existential threats to our civilization focuses on harmful habits of mind, including single-mindedness. I’ve come to see the Trinitarian model of God as potentially very helpful.

Disputes over how to balance competing needs are often mistaken as fights between right and wrong. Excessive devotion to one side of an issue can easily produce genuine evil. If we require perfection from officials, we’ll get secrecy instead, and secrecy breeds corruption. If we never punish officials, we’ll likewise promote corruption.

Institutions function stably and justly only if we seek a balance that allows us to forgive gaffes but that prevents us from degenerating to the point at which we cover up fiendish crimes.

Avoiding extremes should be easy if we respect each other, but finding the optimal balance is usually difficult. When I look at the Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I ask, do fathers and sons always agree? Maybe we could think of the Father as siding with the powerful, the Son as siding with the rest of us, and the Holy Spirit as a guide in balancing the competing needs of Father and Son. That way, we could reserve condemnation for monsters.