ygin
I suspect that what has happened has been a very slow evolution, such that these guys don't even comprehend how they come off to the laity and the world.  It's all about subtleties, of course but those subtleties do matter.  When a bishop says the kinds of things O'Malley said here, he (perhaps unknowingly) is telling us that the abuse mess has been pigeonholed as but one of so many things on their plate.  He may not intend for that to be the case, but if he also assumes that he has the trust of the laity because of his position in the church, and if he further believes that because he has taken this further than most, that he can now try to gently push us all to move on.  And yes, it's true that we can fight more than one fight at a time.  But what he does not yet seem to grasp, is that people are still watching, still waiting for results.  What now appears to be almost an "administrative chore" to O'Malley and Francis, remains a serious, life threatening cancer to many of us.