Why the Catholic church keeps hitting the wrong note

The pope’s letter was not the point, but still the language felt off: the sentimentality of “little ones” made one want to scream in the circumstances, particularly when the letter contained no concrete plan of action – part of the wider inability of the church to squarely confront the crimes in its history.

And then this, from Cardinal Tobin, the archbishop of Newark: a note sent out in the same week to clergy in his diocese urging them not to talk to journalists, but instead to direct all inquiries to the archdiocese’s director of communications, after an article by the Catholic News Agency had fresh allegations of sexual misconduct by two priests. The cardinal claimed ignorance of the matter and expressed a hope that the anonymous sources referred to in the piece were not priests in the diocese. (The Catholic News Agency confirmed that they were.) The Catholic church’s habit of secrecy and denial continues.