Rev. Daniel Moloney Urges “True Mercy,” not “Leniency” at Lecture

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Students and faculty of Thomas Aquinas College, California, filled St. Cecelia Hall’s Fritz B. Burns Auditorium on Friday, September 13, to hear Rev. Daniel Moloney present a lecture about the virtue, and proper exercise, of mercy. 

Fr. Moloney, who spoke as part of the St. Vincent De Paul Lecture and Concert Series, received his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Notre Dame and is currently serving as the assistant chaplain at the Thomas More Newman Center at Ohio State University. He has worked at think tanks in Princeton, Washington, D.C., and New York; served as the associate editor of First Things; and is the author of Mercy: What Every Catholic Ought to Know.

In his lecture, “Contemporary Catholic Errors About Being ‘Merciful’ and ‘Pastoral,’” Fr. Moloney laid out six common errors that can lead Catholics to set aside truth and doctrine. In addressing these errors, he noted that mercy cannot be opposed to justice or doctrine. He further contended that confusing mercy with leniency can prevent the Church from offering healing to sinners. 

“True mercy attempts to make people better, to right wrongs, to heal their wounds and not just cover them with useless bandages,” said Fr. Moloney. “Leniency, on the other hand, is the mere setting aside of the standards of justice and what is right. It’s a false imitation of mercy, because it attempts to lower the high standards of what is right. … True mercy tries to lift the sinner up to grow him closer to the standards of justice and greatness.”

Fr. Moloney proposed definitions of the virtues of justice and mercy and contended that, when properly understood, mercy can never be in conflict with justice, but rather works in its service. “Getting our theory of mercy right matters,” he said. “If mercy is the desire to right wrongs, then it cannot be opposed to justice, understood as ‘rightness.’ Nor can mercy be opposed to correct doctrine, which is the Church’s teaching of what is right.”

After the lecture, Fr. Moloney joined many students and faculty in the Dillon Seminar Room for an informal discussion period. He answered questions about his definitions of justice and mercy, discussing how the two differ in God and in man, how mercy is related to corrective justice and compassion, and the understanding of justice as giving what is due to another. Students asked questions and listened, grateful for the opportunity to give deeper consideration to the questions he raised.

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