I think that what ails the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is embodied in the so-called Fortnight for Freedom.  Here the bishops, perhaps unwittingly (one can never underestimate their naivete), sold their collective souls to the political and religious right.  I don't see any way forward for them as a Conference, no way to re-brand, no way to recover a credible voice on public issues, until and unless they abandon the Fortnight for Freedom and apologize for the colossal waste of the resources of American Catholics that it represents.