Sinful men and the power of the word

Many people have been deeply wounded by the institutional Church, and this in at least two distinct but related ways.

First, some individual priests have been guilty of grievous and, at times, heinous crimes.

Second, some bishops — including those in very senior positions — knowingly covered up wrongdoing and reassigned offenders, even when the risk of re‑offending was clearly grave.

It is therefore not surprising that many people cite these failures as reasons why they “walked away from the Church” long ago.