Celebrity Priest Admits Affair

No, not the celebrity priest you're probably thinking of.

Fr. Michael Manning, whose media ministry Wordnet Productions produces the program The Word in the World, broadcast on Trinity Broadcasting Network and other channels, admitted an affair to a local newspaper after someone tipped off a reporter.

The woman is Fr. Manning's second cousin.

Unlike more hysterical writers ("I don't even have words for how bad that is" say National Catholic Register bloggers Mat and Pat Archbold), reporter Josh Dulaney of the San Jose Mercury News writes about the 70-year-old priest's remorse and struggle with sin, his breaking off the affair two years ago, and the burden of his own hypocrisy.

Dulaney reminds readers repulsed by the blood relationship that second cousins are less closely related than first cousins -- who can marry in the state of California. And he reports that the correspondence leaked to the newspaper "appears to reveal a conflicted priest struggling to remain faithful to his calling."

He quotes one of the letters from Fr. Manning as saying, "The burden of deception in hotels, and with the community with whom I work and live has become overwhelming."

Now, I'm guessing that many Son Rise Morning Show listeners haven't heard of Fr. Manning because he isn't on EWTN -- he's on the Protestant and "lowbrow" (by some accounts) TBN -- and never the twain shall meet. But he isn't exactly nobody. He's appeared on many television programs, aside from his own; he's written numerous books; his website offers daily reflections; he even has a Facebook page for an iPhone app that delivers daily sermonettes.

The online response has been -- in comparison to a certain accused priest I could name -- sparse but predictable. Fr. Manning is "flippant." He expects everyone to forgive him while "priests" are unwilling to forgive divorced and gay people. He leaves people "sad, angry and betrayed." He's too charming. His story is "bizarre."

I'd say his story is none of anyone's business. If someone hadn't leaked it, no one would ever know -- and no one was entitled to know. It was not illegal, it was not an abuse of power, it was not a gleeful choice to lead a double life for as long as possible, it was a regular old sin. One of the oldest, in fact. As the reporter tells it, the man struggled with his sin, won his struggle, repented, confessed, and went on with the life he had vowed long ago to God. People fall all the time, and when they fall they are supposed to do just that. That's what we believe as Catholics. Yes, it's disappointing -- but priests, even "celebrity" priests, are not God. Thinking they are says more about us than it does about them, and what it says isn't good.