Rev. Thomas Reese:
Nobody in the church has been perfect on dealing with the sex abuse crisis. There was a lot of ignorance. There was a lot of stupidity.
And — but I think Pope Francis learned during his papacy. For example, he went to Chile and just blew it. I mean, he just did not get it. He didn’t believe the accusations that were being made. It’s like somebody makes accusations against your brother or your uncle. You find it incomprehensible.
But then, when he found out it was true, boy, did he get mad. And he made all of the bishops in Chile submit their resignations. He didn’t accept them all, but he accepted some of them. And he started going after bishops and saying, you protect your children or you’re out.
And so that became a new tone in the Catholic Church, which I think was very helpful.
