Ever since the world learned about priests and brothers abusing orphan boys at Mount Cashel, for 40 years Canada’s Catholics have lived with a public image of their Church as hypocritical and defensive.  As more abuse scandals rumbled across headlines and through the courts, public contempt for the Catholic Church became commonplace. Add onto this mountain of shame all that we’ve learned lately about Indian residential schools.

In response, a lay movement has been growing over the last year — a network of faithful lay Catholics who are not going to live with the scandals or the paralysis of their Church anymore. Concerned Lay Catholics (www.concernedlaycatholics.ca) have been inspired by Pope Francis to take ownership of their Church and its problems. There are representatives now in nine provinces, and growing.

Among the inspirations for this lay movement is abuse survivor William O’Sullivan, who has been picketing outside of St. Kevin’s…