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That\u2019s the question, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n
In the wake of the McCarrick scandal comes the grand jury\u2019s report on sexual abuse in Pennsylvania, as summarized, for instance, by Bethany Mandel at Ricochet<\/a>, and at the Catholic News Agency<\/a>.\u00a0 The report is devastating, with multiple instances of stomach-churning levels of abuse, and with bishops more interested in protecting the abusers than the abused.\u00a0 Most notably, this is not all a matter of the past, and some long-dead bishop, but rather the current bishop of Washington, Cardinal Donald Wuerl<\/a> is identified as one such complacent, indifferent bishop, during his time as bishop of Pittsburgh.\u00a0 His twitter feed says at this point exactly nothing<\/a> about the grand jury report.\u00a0 He has put out a statement<\/a> (which is not easy to find) claiming that he did everything he was supposed to do; the report itself (linked to by The Anchoress<\/a>, Elizabeth Scalia) documents otherwise, that he, too, participated in the reassigning of molestor-priests.\u00a0 (Wuerl is also engaged in some further CYA with a website specifically created to defend his actions<\/a>.)<\/p>\n What to do?\u00a0 At Word on Fire<\/a>, Scalia outlines seven steps, though most of them seem most effective for those who are already \u201cin the know\u201d or hooked up into the larger Catholic world.\u00a0 She also, on her own site, lists some bishops<\/a> who have made specific statements that go beyond the bland promises of the USCCB.\u00a0 Simcha Fisher<\/a> rails at the silence of the (other) bishops.<\/p>\n On twitter, journalist Terry Teachout wrote:<\/p>\n https:\/\/twitter.com\/terryteachout\/status\/1029448010684686336<\/a><\/p>\n National Review writer Michael Brendan Dougherty said this:<\/p>\n I actually feel sick reading this. I have read extensively about the \u201cbad popes\u201d in history, but I cannot think of any era in the Church that compares in moral corruption to this. The Pre-Reformation era was venal. This is demonic by comparison.<\/p>\n \u2014 Michael Brendan Dougherty (@michaelbd) August 14, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n