The Viganò testimony bears the mark of a man seething with anger and perhaps facing the mystery of death. “It is in moments of great trial that the Lord’s grace is revealed in abundance and makes His limitless mercy available to all,” the 77-year-old churchman writes near the end. “But it is granted only to those who are truly repentant.”

For American and global Catholicism, Viganò’s dark night of the soul presents a bright clarifying moment. The document portrays a church whose highest echelons are dominated by old men who apparently don’t believe, or at least don’t take all that seriously, what she has taught about human sexuality for two millennia. And others who are willing to cut corners to protect their decadent brethren.