The legal cases of three cardinals – Theodore McCarrick, George Pell and Philippe Barbarin – are a test of the Church’s attitude towards her own canon law. Will she actually use it? The alternative is to abandon her own justice system, subjecting her prelates to the vagaries of secular justice. Which might just mean no justice at all.
As Pope Francis marks his sixth anniversary, a pressing issue in the year ahead will be to defend the Church’s canonical processes, an unexpected turn for a pope who famously lacks enthusiasm for legal precision.
