Yep, those real sentiments are coming out now

One of the officers involved in the Mel Gibson arrest report charitably — and correctly –explained to the press that when people get drunk, their inner feelings do come out without the usual civilized restraint sober folks try to maintain. So he remarked that Gibson’s outburst was the booze talking.

Now a parallel story of intoxication and unrestrained bigotry is erupting. Reading and hearing the still growing fury over this story, which should have ended with his profoundly remorseful second apology (much less the first), it looks like Hollywood and media elites are inebriated with a different sort of toxin. It’s contempt, and it has unleashed hostilities that reveal what they must have been thinking about Gibson and his work….or wait, maybe his faith….all along.

And what might that be? Diogenes may be onto something here.

So to review, let’s hear from a good Catholic, a good priest, and a news commentator, Fox News contributor Fr. Jonathan Morris.

I speak confidently and unambiguously, because my experience in working on “The Passion” taught me something else about Mel. While some people are willing to put on facades and give a good “spin” to save face and a career, Mel Gibson cannot. He is painfully honest and incapable of writing or approving a public relations piece in which he does not believe whole-heartedly.

Mel wrote a letter to the Jewish community. He requested forgiveness and asked Jewish community leaders for help in working toward long-term reconciliation. Much to his credit, Abraham Foxman responded graciously.

But the next day, Foxman published a skeptical piece in the New York Post, questioning Gibson’s sincerity.

If Mr. Foxman thinks Mel’s handlers wrote and distributed the statement without Mel’s full consent, he doesn’t know Mel Gibson. To ask for yet another apology is out of place and, in my opinion, reflects badly on the organization Mr. Foxman represents.

Mel’s deplorable comments came from somewhere. In his inebriated state, he revealed what was on his mind in a given moment. Together with Mel, I condemn his statements about Jewish people and say they are not true. But I praise him for what is on his mind now, in cold and reflective sobriety, as expressed in his first apology and his subsequent letter to the Jewish community.

Now is a time for forgiveness. Mel has asked for it. We should give it.

Fr. Jonathan is right. The Catholic Church teaches that when we have committed a grievance against others, we must apologize and ask for forgiveness. And that teaching holds that we are equally obliged to accept an apology, and to forgive.

Who would benefit from carrying this on any further?