Now that the four-day meeting on child protection in the Church is over and done, the question is: what next? For an answer to that, you’ll need a soothsayer, not a journalist. The most anyone can do is see where we are and where we’ve been, in order to see where we might be going. The short version is: We’ve come from a bad place, and got to a worse one. The four-day summit that opened with deflated expectations largely failed to meet even those.
The widely quoted promises from Pope Francis, of “all-out battle” against the clerical sexual abuse of minors – and of its cover-up by bishops and other Church leaders – were not backed by any clear policy, nor even the promise of one. In fact, it was almost as if the men in charge do not understand what policy is.
