As the old adage goes, you don’t fatten a pig by weighing it. Nor do you solve an abuse crisis simply by having summits to discuss it. It is therefore in part understandable if the Pope has sought to play down expectations of what the bishops gathering now in Rome might achieve. However, for someone who once memorably counselled pastors to smell of the sheep, the Pope risks appearing overly sanitised if he does not demonstrate that he shares the urgency of the People of God to change things.
The levels of frustration and demoralisation among priests and people grows daily as more revelations of abuse emerge. But the proximate cause of this summit was not the abuse of minors; it was the discovery that one of the highest-ranking churchmen had lived a double life for 50 years and that this was hidden in plain sight. Theodore McCarrick was himself no stranger to summits issuing charters promising to end abuse.
