The Monster in the Room

By Fr. Jerry Pokorsky ( bio - articles - email ) | Mar 16, 2026

In 1510, Dominican friars arrived in Santo Domingo and refused absolution to colonists who would not repent of their exploitation of the Indians. The refusal was not cruelty; it was spiritual medicine. Among those shaken was Bartolomé de las Casas, a landowner whose estates relied on forced Indian labor. Confronted by his conscience, he came to his senses and, after ordination, became the first to expose the Spaniards’ oppression of the Indians. In 2002, the Church began the formal process toward his beatification.

Lent is a season of repentance, a time to confront the ties between sin and its effects. Repentance restores peace of mind, infuses sanctifying grace, and begins to dismantle the structures of sin, suffering, and despair.

The link between wrong behavior and suffering is often clear: Smoke too many cigarettes, and you risk lung cancer. Drive recklessly, and you may crash your car. Much suffering comes from the sins of others: crime, scams, or the horrors of war. Some suffering is mysterious, like inherited diseases or afflictions with no clear cause.

The disciples recognized that suffering is rooted in sin. “As he passed by, [Jesus] saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him.’” (John 9:1–3)

Some suffering seems inexplicable, yet it still connects to sin—particularly the lingering effects of Original Sin. Innocent suffering reveals the unseen ripple effects of sin in the world. As St. John Henry Newman observed:

The Catholic Church holds it better for the sun and moon to drop from heaven, for the earth to fail, and for all the many millions upon it to die of starvation in extremest agony, than that one soul… should commit one single venial sin, should tell one wilful untruth, or should steal one poor farthing without excuse.

Newman’s unnerving words affirm the mystery of the Cross. Jesus’ innocence reveals that suffering is not sin itself. Sin is the monster in the room; suffering is our personal encounter with it. Jesus’ innocent suffering reveals the terrible reality of every sin, mortal or venial. Reflecting on His Passion, we see that our own sins—alongside those of the chief priests and Romans—crucified Him.

As our sins accumulate, they can become habitual and structural within organizations. This is why we speak of "sinful social structures." Pope John Paul II recognized this term but emphasized that every sin is personal. Therefore, speaking of “sinful social structures” is strictly metaphorical.

These structures take many forms, such as crime syndicates, morally dubious corporations, and government entities that enable injustices. Globalism and international militarism raise serious moral concerns. Employees caught in morally questionable organizations may not realize they are complicit in evil.

Ambiguity surrounds these discussions. One man’s organizational empire might be another’s sinful structure. Are free-market institutions promoting human prosperity, or merely exporting jobs? Do we have a praiseworthy “arsenal of democracy,” or a sinful “military-industrial complex”? The laity must wrestle with these questions, adhering always to the first principles of Catholic natural law.

Bureaucracies are not inherently evil, but as they grow, they can easily accentuate the impersonal. Even Church institutions are not immune. When Pope John XXIII was asked how many people worked in the Vatican, he famously replied, “About half of them.”

Not all large organizations have pronounced sinful policy patterns. Some do and promote subversive secularist ideologies, with many employees cooperating with the wrongdoing. The breakdown of these systems begins when individuals recognize their role and choose to repent. Occasionally organizations need a conscientious whistle-blower.

There is something Providential about sinful social structures: they carry the seeds of their own destruction. In essence, these structures are divided, with personal sins degrading the institutional fabric. Sin divides us from one another. As Jesus warned, “If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.” (Matthew 3:24–26)

Promoting the Catholic social-justice principle of subsidiarity hastens the dismantling of sinful social structures (cf. Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, 1891, and Pope Pius XI, Quadragesimo Anno, 1931). Subsidiarity, rooted in natural law, holds that issues should be handled by the smallest or least centralized entity capable of resolving them. God applies saving grace to individuals, not institutions. Smaller organizations tend to accentuate personal responsibility and are more likely to encourage accountability.

Deconstructing large organizations, where possible, tends to restore personal responsibility. Organizations cannot repent; people can. Breaking down unwieldy structures returns accountability where it belongs. Evil behavior is more difficult to disguise. Subsidiarity is a practical, “divide and conquer” approach. Consider a bloated budget: trim it—or the organization will fail.

Jesus, through His Church, forgives our sins and grants peace in this life, along with eternal happiness in the next. Personal repentance mends broken souls and dismantles sinful social structures. Pope Leo XIV described the Sacrament of Reconciliation in unifying terms:

The Sacrament of Reconciliation is thus a ‘workshop of unity’: it restores unity with God through the forgiveness of sins and the infusion of sanctifying grace. This fosters inner unity of the individual and unity with the Church; consequently, it also promotes peace and unity within the human family. One might well ask: do Christians who bear grave responsibility in armed conflicts have the humility and courage to make a serious examination of conscience and go to confession?

Personal repentance heals broken souls and begins to repair broken systems. Armed conflicts can become sinful social structures. The recent killing of Iranian schoolgirls by errant missiles demands accountability, remorse, and reparation (the circumstances around the killing of innocents is the canary in the coal mine of just-war considerations).

When faced with obdurate impenitence, sometimes the only way to confront the monster in the room is the denial of sacramental absolution. Until then, the opprobrium of public opinion against every violation of the Commandments can help restrain it.