"I would say the hierarchy has made terrible errors in judgment and it has to seek forgiveness by its members"
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“I would say” is doing a lot of work here: Leahy opens with a teacher’s caution, the kind that signals he’s about to issue a serious charge while still sounding measured, fair, and evidence-minded. Then he lands the blow anyway. “The hierarchy” is deliberately impersonal and institutional, a word that evokes top-down authority more than individual bad actors. It’s not just that someone messed up; it’s that the structure itself produced “terrible errors in judgment,” a phrase that sounds almost bureaucratic until you notice how it smuggles in moral indictment. “Judgment” implies discretion, a choice. “Terrible” denies the comfort of “mistakes were made.”
The subtext is a power inversion. Hierarchies typically demand accountability, obedience, even confession from their base. Leahy flips that script: the institution must “seek forgiveness” from “its members.” Not the public, not critics, not outsiders, but the people it exists to serve and represent. That word choice matters: “members” implies belonging, shared identity, and therefore betrayal. You don’t apologize to members unless you’ve broken trust inside the family.
As an educator, Leahy speaks from a profession trained to think in terms of responsibility and repair, not just punishment. He’s calling for a pedagogical response to institutional failure: acknowledge harm, name it plainly, and rebuild legitimacy through humility. The context reads like a moment when a leadership class has lost moral authority - and when legitimacy can’t be reclaimed by PR, only by contrition directed downward.
The subtext is a power inversion. Hierarchies typically demand accountability, obedience, even confession from their base. Leahy flips that script: the institution must “seek forgiveness” from “its members.” Not the public, not critics, not outsiders, but the people it exists to serve and represent. That word choice matters: “members” implies belonging, shared identity, and therefore betrayal. You don’t apologize to members unless you’ve broken trust inside the family.
As an educator, Leahy speaks from a profession trained to think in terms of responsibility and repair, not just punishment. He’s calling for a pedagogical response to institutional failure: acknowledge harm, name it plainly, and rebuild legitimacy through humility. The context reads like a moment when a leadership class has lost moral authority - and when legitimacy can’t be reclaimed by PR, only by contrition directed downward.
Quote Details
| Topic | Forgiveness |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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