The Catholic Bishops Who Couldn’t

By Mene Ukueberuwa
Wall Street Journal
November 15, 2018

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-catholic-bishops-who-couldnt-1542326802

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops met urgently this week to address the most recent revelations of sex abuse by clergy. If public anger about past coverups wasn’t enough to spur church leaders into action, the pressure of more than a dozen state investigations presents an ultimatum, forcing bishops to prove they are able to police their own affairs. Yet on the eve of the conference in Baltimore, the Vatican forbade the bishops to adopt practical reforms. The move tears the U.S. church between the authority of Rome and the trust of its followers.

Two...