The news that Archbishop McCarrick is to live a life of prayer and penitence with the Capuchin friars of Victoria Kansas, as this magazine reports, is worthy of comment from several angles.
First of all, the length to which the local bishop has gone to explain the decision is a sign that the American hierarchy now realise (rather late in the day) that they have a McCarrick problem. McCarrick has to live somewhere. Kansas is remote, and very far from the American North-East where the former cardinal grew up and ministered as a bishop. For someone from New York, Kansas, to put it mildly, must seem like Siberia. And yet, Bishop Gerald L. Vincke of Salina, the local ordinary, has taken great lengths to explain the decision, and to stress that McCarrick will not be appearing in public or be a financial charge on the local diocese. McCarrick seems to be as toxic as another fallen figure who was once feted by many, the later Shah of Persia, who travelled from country to country looking for refuge and finding none.
