Cardinal Reinhard Marx’s offer to resign as archbishop of Munich and Freising hit the church in Germany and Rome like an earthquake. And while survivors welcomed the move, not everyone agrees with the cardinal’s analysis of the abuse crisis.

“A prayer that is alien from life is not healthy. A prayer that alienates itself from the concreteness of life becomes spiritualism, or worse, ritualism.”

Pope Francis has asked Bishop Egidio Miragoli, to carry out a visitation of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy, which has oversight of the more than 410,000 Catholic priests around the world. He did not reveal why the pope chose him to do this work.

“My fragility, the fragility of each one of us, is a theological place of encounter with the Lord. The ‘superman’ priests end up badly, all of them,” Pope Francis said.

“Canadian political and religious authorities may continue to cooperate with determination to shed light on that sad situation and to commit themselves humbly to a path of reconciliation and healing,” Pope Francis said.

The cardinal’s decision comes at a time when there is a major crisis in the other large German diocese of Cologne linked to the abuse scandal and pastoral management of the archdiocese.