The most overlooked story of 2018 might become the most important story of 2019 and many years beyond.
The central question that emerged with great clarity in 2018 as the scandal stories rolled in from Chile to Honduras to America to Ireland and India is this: what kind of ecclesial culture permitted this rot to take root? The frequent diagnosis of “clericalism” is another way of asking the same question. To decry clericalism means to identify the specific ways of priestly thinking, the patterns of priestly behaviour and the kind of clerical culture which allowed this to happen.
