"The walls are raised against honest men in civic life"
About this Quote
A wall is a convenient metaphor for a city that has decided virtue is a trespass. O'Connell, a Boston cardinal who moved comfortably in the orbit of Irish Catholic machine politics, isn’t lamenting sin in the abstract. He’s pointing at the mechanics of public life: the gatekeeping, the patronage networks, the backroom understandings that make "civic" sound noble while functioning like a private club. The line hits because it flips the expected alignment. In a healthy democracy, the walls are supposed to keep the predators out; here, they’re engineered to keep the decent in.
The intent is pastoral but tactical. As a cleric, O'Connell had reason to be wary of moralizing that ignores power. He’s naming a discouraging reality his congregants would recognize: the honest man who runs for office and gets ground down by money, party bosses, or newspapers; the reformer who discovers that transparency is treated as naivete. The phrase "raised against" suggests deliberateness, not drift. This isn’t corruption as human weakness; it’s corruption as infrastructure.
Subtextually, it’s also a warning to the faithful about civic withdrawal. If honesty is systematically excluded, the temptation is to retreat into parish life and call politics irredeemable. O'Connell counters that cynicism by making the barrier visible - and therefore contestable. Walls can be scaled, breached, or torn down. But first you have to admit they were built.
The intent is pastoral but tactical. As a cleric, O'Connell had reason to be wary of moralizing that ignores power. He’s naming a discouraging reality his congregants would recognize: the honest man who runs for office and gets ground down by money, party bosses, or newspapers; the reformer who discovers that transparency is treated as naivete. The phrase "raised against" suggests deliberateness, not drift. This isn’t corruption as human weakness; it’s corruption as infrastructure.
Subtextually, it’s also a warning to the faithful about civic withdrawal. If honesty is systematically excluded, the temptation is to retreat into parish life and call politics irredeemable. O'Connell counters that cynicism by making the barrier visible - and therefore contestable. Walls can be scaled, breached, or torn down. But first you have to admit they were built.
Quote Details
| Topic | Honesty & Integrity |
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