text: There is so much anger, sadness, and justified mistrust created by this evil scandal that it may not be possible for the church to heal from it at least at this time. It may well be that the present generation of hierarchy and clergy will have to pass away before there can be any kind of reconciliation. There is no excuse for the evil that the clergy have perpetrated and then tried to cover up. Many of the clergy and hierarchy who covered up were and are accessories after the fact. It is doubtful that they can play any part in healing because their good will is suspect. In the future, after all of us who have lived through this terrible time are gone, a new iteration of Catholic Christianity might well emerge without clergy. There may be no other way.