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So now Cardinal McCarrick is now just, well, I guess, Mr. McCarrick.\u00a0 The Washington Post<\/a>, among others, reports a widely-acknowledged need to clean house.\u00a0 He will be given a trial according to canon law but the eventual punishment is unclear except for the sort of \u201clife of penitence\u201d that occurs in such cases.\u00a0 The Post speaks of McCarrick also being de-frocked, and I\u2019m not entirely sure what that means, that is, what the consequences are \u2014 the Post reports this as a matter of him being \u201cbecoming a lay person, not a Catholic priest\u201d but I thought that this was considered theologically impossible, and the only thing that can happen is to be banned from acting in any way as a priest; in any case, for someone as corrupt as McCarrick reportedly was, I\u2019m not sure what the consequences would be.\u00a0 Is it worse to semi-imprison him in a monastic cell somewhere, or leave him to his own devices out in the world?\u00a0 Can the church even compel the \u201clife of penitence\u201d in the first place, if McCarrick rejects it?<\/p>\n But having said that:\u00a0 what next?<\/p>\n Other people, more in the know and more connected than I, have said things like \u201chold the bishops to account.\u201d<\/p>\n But here\u2019s what I struggle with:\u00a0 how, exactly?<\/p>\n Simcha Fisher on twitter says,<\/p>\n Okay, Catholics. What do we do? Total boycott of giving money until there are widespread defrockings? This is a sincere question. We can't wait for the magisterium to put appropriate pressure on itself.<\/p>\n \u2014 (((Simcha Fisher))) (@SimchaFisher) July 29, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n