WASHINGTON (DC)
National Catholic Register

March 12, 2019

By Peter Jesserer Smith

Throughout the Church’s history, the laity have proved essential to the reform of the clergy, and the present crisis is no exception.

Peter Isley, a sex-abuse survivor, has seen the sex-abuse crisis erupt in the Church three times. But this last time is different: The scope of the crisis emerging is global, the responsibility of the bishops for the cover-up of abuse is laid bare, and the laity are now taking the reform of the Church into their own hands.

“I’ve not seen this level of laypeople angry,” he said. “They’re just not tolerating this anymore.”

For Isley, a U.S. spokesman for the Ending Clergy Abuse coalition, this moment in the Church’s history comes after decades of a via dolorosa, where he and other victims suffered enormous persecution as they tried to wake up…