I didn’t abuse my CCD students (mandatory Saturday or weeknight classes for students attending public schools) when I taught them as a volunteer in the ’80s. I didn’t have a single abusive priest or nun in 12 years of Catholic education. This horror has ownership, and the deed’s many names include Wuerl. And with Monday’s “everybody is to blame” mea non-culpa from Pope Francis, his name is on it too. Wuerl needs to resign. And the church would be better off with two retired popes and a new man absolutely dedicated to supporting the reformers, not suppressing them.

The church, despite leaders such as Chaput and Gomez, cannot be trusted to tear out the rot. There are too few like them and too much rot. There should be 49 other state attorneys general investigations or, given the interstate movement of predators with the cooperation of the church, perhaps a Justice Department investigation leading to a consent decree on practices that the church is obliged to follow when a pedophile is discovered in its midst. It wouldn’t violate the free exercise clause to insist that every bishop simply agree to follow the law.