The Church, as hierarchical, cannot. The Church, as the People of God, can.
“In the statement on Wuerl’s retirement, the Pope lauded the cardinal, saying, “You have sufficient elements to ‘justify’ your actions and distinguish between what it means to cover up crimes or not to deal with problems, and to commit some mistakes. However, your nobility has led you not to choose this way of defense. Of this, I am proud and thank you.”
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who oversaw the Pennsylvania grand jury report on sex abuse in the Catholic Church, is disappointed that Wuerl will simply enter retirement without facing justice. Shapiro told the press, “It is unacceptable that then-Bishop Wuerl … oversaw and participated in the systematic cover-up that he did when leading the Pittsburgh diocese, and that he is now able to retire, seemingly with no consequences for his actions.”
Shapiro opined, “We can’t rely on the Church to fix itself.”
https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/pa-ag-blasts-wuerls-resignation1
Broad summary. Left out a few details but a good 60,000 ft view.
“The Catholic Church in America is on the brink of extinction, the bishops have lost all credibility, the Pope is involved in covering up and advancing homopredator cardinals, whistle-blower clergy are driven into hiding, laity are forced to take training as though they were the ones raping altar boys, former seminarians are pouring out of the woodwork telling of the evil they endured, homosexual clerics are allowed free reign in parish after parish, a gay South American pipeline is discovered — and in the face of all this, CNA says the independent Catholic media are making things up, not to be believed.” https://www.churchmilitant.com/video/episode/vortex-why-official-catholic-media-cant-be-trusted
What other ‘option’ do the laity have? Money and prayer and vigilance.
“The hierarchy has charge of the Church in doctrinal matters and even in administrative matters. The laity, however, controls the purse strings. We are not living in the late Middle Ages. There has sprung up a middle class over the past 500 to 600 years that has changed things radically for the Catholic hierarchy. It controls a huge amount of the Church’s assets. Moreover, the hierarchy controls very little wealth. Its vast land holdings have vanished. The bishops and cardinals ought to adjust their arrogance to these realities.
Already American Catholics, rich and not-so-rich, are calling for the faithful to pull back on their donations. It will set back the bishops’ budgets very rapidly.
Donations are already down. I am told that parishes are experiencing as much a 50 percent decline in their weekly collections. “
https://spectator.org/the-pope-at-a-loss-for-words/
Let me ask this question, why do the bishops support the Democrats? Why are the bishops working through the topic of Open Border Immigration? Is it because not only do they lose money with fewer immigrants but also a back room deal for dropping prosecution if Dems get control again? “The federal government is thereby authorized to confiscate the property of any organization, including the Catholic Church, that is found to have fostered or covered up human rights violations perpetrated by its members. It would also likely cause the withdrawal of hundreds of millions of dollars of federal funding received annually by the Church. https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/federal-probe-into-catholic-church
“The investigation that’s being led by U.S. Attorney General William McSwain is specifically looking into clerical misconduct that includes:
- Transporting children across state lines for illegal purposes
- Priests sending or receiving sexual imagery on their phones or computers
- Clergy being told not to contact law enforcement
- Predator priests being reassigned
- Money being used for illegal purposes”
https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/federal-probe-into-catholic-church