KANSAS CITY (MO0
National Catholic Reporter
February 13, 2019
By Michael Sean Winters
One week from tomorrow, the presidents of the world’s bishops’ conferences will begin a four-day meeting in Rome to discuss the church’s response to clergy sex abuse. What can we reasonably expect from such a short meeting and on such a complex issue?
Most prognosticators think the meeting will fall short of expectations. I suppose that depends on what those expectations are. Take for example, my colleague Jesuit Fr. Tom Reese, who offered five reasons he thought the meeting would fail, the last of which was this:
Nonetheless, the meeting will also fail because, in order to succeed, Francis will have to lay down the law and simply tell the bishops what to do, rather than consulting with them. He’ll have to present a solution to the crisis and tell them to go home and implement it.
Francis will not do that. He does not see himself as the CEO of the Catholic Church. He has a great respect for collegiality, the belief that the pope should not act like an absolute monarch. At his first synod of bishops, he encouraged the bishops to speak boldly and not be afraid to disagree with him.
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