COMMENTARY: The Temple needed to be cleansed in the time of Caiaphas. It still does. It always will.
Former cardinal and laicized priest Theodore McCarrick has died. The exposure of his grave sins and crimes marked another phase of the sexual abuse crisis. Having lived out his last years in secluded dementia, there is little left to say about the details of his case.
His death is an occasion to recall what McCarrick taught us about clerical corruption, and how prevalent it remains in the history of salvation. The days before Holy Week are a good time to be reminded of that.
In the 2002 phase of the sexual abuse scandals, Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston was the principal figure of negligence and cover-up. In 2018, McCarrick was something different, a malefactor himself who rose high in the ranks. His case raised the specter of widespread ecclesial corruption.
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