PopeWatch: Don’t Hold Your Breath

From Phil Lawler at Catholic Culture:

Yes, there will be plenty of headlines. But will the stories be accurate? Inexperienced reporters and overambitious prosecutors do not always distinguish between accusation and proof, between fact and opinion, between evidence and speculation. I’ll be reading the stories, and I’ll try to help readers separate accurate reporting from innuendo. I don’t plan to report on the scandal, but when others produce significant stories, I’ll offer my perspective. (It’s the reporting that I can’t take any more, not the commentary.)

When I refer to “significant stories,” I mean to indicate that I won’t feel an obligation to comment on each new accusation or indictment or even conviction, or every new set of episcopal policies and procedures. A “significant” development would be one that breaks the familiar, depressing pattern. For instance:

• if the Vatican ever discloses the results of the investigation in the McCarrick scandal;
• if either the Vatican or the US bishops produce documentary evidence to confirm or deny the charges made by Archbishop Vigano;
• if a bishop closes down a parish that has become openly defiant of Church teachings, and/or undertakes remedial work at a church whose pastor left in disgrace;
• if a prelate steps down before his case reaches the mass media;
• —or best of all,
• if bishops begin calling each other to account.

While waiting for those significant developments, I propose to focus my own attention on those Catholics who are working actively for reform, both within the Church and in society at large. I wish that I could offer some sweeping proposal for instant reform: some program that would eliminate the corruption. But I have no miracles up my sleeve.

Go here to read the rest.