Bad Breath and the Corrupt

I have always said that corrupt people smell bad. Even if they dress in silk and wear expensive perfume, they cannot hide the smell of thieves, of greedy, wasteful, insatiable people…

Well, last week Pope Francis expressed an idea that has a lot to do with the stench they give off: “The corrupt do not perceive their corruption. It is like bad breath: those who have it hardly ever notice; it is others who notice and have to tell them. For that reason, it is hard for a corrupt person to get out of that state.”

Since he came to the pontificate, Pope Francis has not stopped saying very harsh things about the corrupt. It seems that in Argentina he knew several of them up close, because the way he describes what they do, what they spend their money on, how they live and how they do harm is striking.

Last Thursday the Pope issued another very strong condemnation of corruption. He said it is “a process of death” that has become commonplace in society and that “it is a greater evil than sin,” but that it nevertheless cannot prevail against the hope brought by the Lord Jesus.

He said this in an address to a delegation of the International Association of Penal Law, in which he denounced that “the scandalous concentration of global wealth is possible because of the connivance of those responsible for public affairs with the powerful.” Did you get that? Something like what we might call influence peddling between “white collars” and the government.

The Pope said that “there are few things more difficult than breaking through a corrupt heart.” He explained that the corrupt person lives by opportunism and even comes to internalize the mask of an honest man. This is not the first time Bergoglio has spoken of the masks of the corrupt. Once, as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, he said that “the corrupt put on a face as if they had done nothing. They should be given an honorary doctorate in social cosmetics.”

For anyone who has had the chance to know a corrupt person personally, what the Pope said next rings very true: “The corrupt person cannot accept criticism, discredits whoever makes it, seeks to diminish any moral authority that might question him, and even attacks with insults anyone who thinks differently, and, if he can, persecutes them.”

They are truly sick people, I think. But they believe they are kings and lords, counts or countesses… And the Pope says: “The corrupt person believes himself a winner. In an atmosphere of triumphalism, he struts about in order to belittle others.”

And the most painful thing of all is that, as the Pope says: “The corrupt person does not know brotherhood or friendship, only complicity and enmity.”

But the gravest thing of all is that, as the Pope said in that address: “The corrupt person does not perceive his corruption. It is like bad breath: those who have it hardly ever notice; it is others who notice and have to tell them. For that reason, it is hard for the corrupt person to get out of that state through his own conscience. Corruption is a greater evil than sin. More than being forgiven, this evil must be cured.”

In this sense, he denounced that this scourge “has become natural, to the point of becoming a personal and social state tied to custom, a common practice in commercial and financial transactions, in public procurement, in every negotiation that involves agents of the State. It is the victory of appearances over reality and of shameless brazenness over honorable discretion.”

The Pope also referred to corruption within the judicial system, denouncing selective penalties: “It is like a net that catches only the small fish, while leaving the big ones free in the sea.”

“The forms of corruption that must be prosecuted most severely are those that cause serious social harm, whether in economic and social matters, such as serious fraud against the public administration or the dishonest exercise of administration, or in any kind of obstruction that interferes with the exercise of justice with the intention of securing impunity for one’s own crimes or those of others.”

At the end of his address the Pope said: “The Lord never tires of knocking at the doors of the corrupt. Corruption cannot prevail against hope.”

The only thing I ask of God is that these people may be able to smell themselves, be disgusted with themselves for all the harm they have done to their families and to society, and be able to ask forgiveness and give back everything they stole. Only then will they be able to live in peace and save their souls when the moment of death comes. Because sooner or later it will come for all of us, and then no influence peddling will be of any use.