NCR Editorial Staff

We say: Look beyond the politics to principle. Formal impeachment proceedings will attempt to get at the truth and hold this president accountable for at least some of his destructive behavior.

The Buffalo Diocese has been dogged by woeful succession of reports of coverups of sexual abuse. Now a Polish priest is claiming that when, as a seminarian, he was sexually assaulted by a priest, the bishop threatened to deny him ordination — and to deport him.

We say: Benedictine Sr. Joan Chittister writes that "the ring of real prophecy lies in its uncommon courage." The Plowshares movement, a non-violent movement of both symbol and personal jeopardy, has that.

We say: The response in certain circles to the Aug. 21 court decision upholding Cardinal George Pell's conviction for sexually assaulting two choirboys in the 1990s was as swift as it was irrational. Hysteria serves no purpose.

We say: "The 1619 Project" leaps light years ahead of the normal considerations of race in the United States, not through analysis or speculation, but rather through unflinching and minutely researched detail. Slavery is in almost every detail of who we are.

We say: When a mass murderer uses the same language as the president, it becomes a moral issue. This time is different, and church leaders should recognize it.

We say: In placing Burke as the keynoter, the Napa Institute sent a clear signal of an attempt to reconstitute clericalism, rejecting the dynamism of Pope Francis' model of accompaniment.

We say: Investigations will continue but are unlikely to result in impeachment. There remains the opportunity presented by the 2020 elections. Yet even that is foreboding, as Mueller noted during his testimony that Trump will be eligible to be indicted after he leaves office.

We say: If Christ is in all and informs all we do, the act of creation and the consequences of our actions upon that creation should rivet our attention in this time of crisis.

We say: That so many conservative Republican loyalists — despite the silence today from members of Congress — are among the most relentless critics is an indication of how distorted the political arena has become.

We say: It took this photo and a statement of lament by the pope about the image to move the US bishops to the kind of language that begins to gather in the horror of this national moment along our southern border.

We say: Support for the dignity of migrants can only begin once the bishops as a group stop hedging their language and openly confront the inhumane immigration policies flowing from the U.S. administration.

We say: The Supreme Court justices' opinions about the World War I memorial cross in Bladensburg, Maryland, show why culture warriors should be careful of what they wish for.

We say: Many of us have perhaps paid limited attention to the regular reports about rising numbers and deteriorating conditions for fellow human beings being held by our government. It's time to stop looking away and to start calling these "centers" or "facilities" what they really are: concentration camps.

We say: The continued awareness of law enforcement and journalism, as well as the vigilance of the laity, is the best guarantee we have that this scourge of sex abuse and cover-up may finally be lifted.

We say: The fact that a hostile power "launched a concerted attack" on our democracy should raise extreme alarm. Yet barely a "What are we doing about it?" creeps into the national conversation.

We say: John Paul II established the church as a global force in a new way, but he left the institution divided and at odds with itself. Francis bears the burden of effecting interior change

We say: State legislatures have busied themselves enacting laws to either restrict abortion rights or expand them, with extreme results in New York and Alabama. There is a reasonable compromise. 

We say: There's no rationale at all for inviting hate speech into our sanctuaries. Fr. Michael Pfleger went over the edge into ugly territory when he handed over St. Sabina's sanctuary to his longtime friend, Minister Louis Farrakhan, who unleashed — unchallenged — a hateful invective against Jews.

NCR Editorial: Weigel's discredited narrative about the causes of the scandal and his illusory ideas on dealing with it do a great disservice to the Catholic faithful in this moment when so much of the church is finally squaring up to the awful truth.