Go read this whole piece by R.R. Reno on the Vatican and her ham-fisted responses over the last few years to the various abuse scandals. Don’t worry. It’s not another who-struck-John (or who-fondled-John) roundelay of blame apportionment. It’s a shrewd appreciation of the fact that the European leadership of the Church finds themselves in a historically anomalous (not unprecedented, but close) position for which they’re not prepared and of which they seem not entirely cognizant. Here‘s a bit:

From time immemorial the leadership of the Catholic Church has been part of the European elite. It is the nature of elites to protect their collective status, which requires hiding faults, winking and nodding at various sins, being “realistic” about the harder requirements of their traditions, co-opting public authorities, and fixing more serious problems and transgressions behind closed doors, while interpreting criticism and exposes of problems as destabilizing attacks on the institutions of the elite.

…

Now, in part because of her own negligence and culpable mismanagement, but more significantly because of the dramatic decline of cultural relevance, the Catholic Church no longer enjoys the perks and protections of elite status. In fits and starts, powerful actors in Europeans societies are making all sorts of decisions—who to investigate and how hard, what to report and how hard—that can only be read as a judgment that the Church doesn’t get a pass anymore.

After World War II, the Catholic Church assumed a very important role in the political and social life of a re-constructed Europe. This was especially true in Italy and Germany…

And to a great extent, the impetus for reform at the Second Vatican Council came not from an effort to regain relevance, but instead from an acute sense of responsibility for reshaping the Church so that she might better fulfill her central place in Europe’s future. It was not to be.…

I don’t think, however, that the Catholic hierarchy has grasped the sociological and institutional consequences of counter-cultural status…

Put simply: the Church has become largely disestablished on the ground, with few going to church (a social reality the consequences of which were masked, perhaps, by the remarkable charisma of John Paul II), and therefore it can no longer retain the privileges of social establishment, one of the most important of which is protection from debilitating criticism.

Confucius, Œc. Vol.

Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu.