This is a very good editorial and it's right as far as it goes, but it ignores the Church's wealth.  Nothing changes when bishops and archbishops who control assets that are valued beyond some third world countries, swear allegiance to popes.  Obedience and loyalty to the system is exactly how they got to control and benefit from those kinds of assets. Pope Francis was part of that process and was elected by others who also rose to those pinnacles of asset control just as Francis did.  In reality, Francis has spent far more time cleaning up asset control than worrying about his clergy sexually abusing children, and that was true when he was AB of Argentina.  This seems to be the one glaring fact most Catholics just cannot process....including NCR. Pope Francis is not going to change the fundamental issue of clericalism at the heart of the clerical abuse scandal because he has reached the pinnacle by conforming, not confronting, the culture that ultimately put him where he is.