Forgiveness and healing can begin only after the most difficult part is addressed: confronting the past, speaking the truth, revealing the worst.

The United States is not the only nation struggling with the problem of outspoken priests becoming entangled with the partisan politics of the day.

“We are deeply saddened by the information coming out of two former residential boarding school sites in Canada,” Chieko Noguchi, the spokesperson of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said.

Vatican sources said that during the meeting they “touched on all the hot button issues, including the situation in the Middle East, the Holy Land and China.”

“I have worked hurricanes, but nothing like this: It is just a look of sadness you see on everyone’s face. It is heartbreaking.”

“The Holy See fears the collapse of the country,” Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s secretary for relations with states, stated frankly.