A few years ago, upon the release of the horrific, faith-shaking revelations of the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report on sex abuse in the Catholic Church, a bishop-friend and I had a conversation touching on just this issue. We were agonizing over the terrible findings and the just anger and revulsion of so many of the faithful, who have been enduring so many terrible findings and disclosures since the start of the new millennium. “As someone in the pews,” he asked me with sincere curiosity, “what do you think we bishops can do to restore some trust, to heal where we can?”

The answer was out of my mouth before I could stop it, and surprised even me: “Depart your mansions,” I told him. “And that’s just to start.” …

Shaw’s observation had stayed with me, and I blamed his book for my abrupt answer to my friend, even as I repeated it. “Sell the mansions; get out of them.” The residences had outworn their usefulness, I argued, and were now ostentatious statements of clerical excess and privilege.

My bishop friend didn’t disagree.