The report landed on French Catholics like a bomb. French bishops had never considered sexual abuse a serious problem. “We have been in denial for 20 years,” Father Goujon said. “The bishops said that [that kind of abuse] could never happen here.”

“For some priests, it would be better if they were married—not just for sexual reasons, but because it would be better for their life and they wouldn’t be lonely,” Cardinal Reinhard Marx said in a newspaper interview.

St. Thomas never wrote again, though much has been penned about this great theologian’s descent into silence before his death in 1274. What should we make of it?

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich said it was time for a fundamental revision of church teaching, and the way Pope Francis had spoken about homosexuality in the past could lead to a change in doctrine.

In his Wednesday audience, Pope Francis spoke about the communion of saints, which he said does not include just those who are perfect, but also “the community of saved sinners.”

Pope Francis encouraged religious sisters and consecrated women to continue to show courage amid difficulties, even if it means pushing back against the church they serve faithfully.