When the Pope Punts

Pope Francis sent a decidedly mixed message Friday, accepting the resignation of Donald Cardinal Wuerl as archbishop of Washington while leaving him in place until a successor’s named — and praising his “nobility” in declining to defend himself by arguing that he’d merely made “some mistakes” in handling abuser-priests.

Wuerl was faulted in the recent Pennsylvania report for mishandling some cases while bishop of Pittsburgh, and also for his long ties to ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who now stands accused of decades of abuse of seminarians as well as of at least one child.

Francis, meanwhile, has been . . . erratic . . . in facing the scandal. This year, he defended Chilean bishops accused of covering for abusers, only to later remove several of them.

And his reaction to the shocking charges from Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former Vatican envoy to the US, has been to simply denounce those trying to divide the church. He echoed that point in Friday’s letter, warning against “sterile division sown by the father of lies who, trying to hurt the shepherd, wants nothing more than that the sheep be dispersed.”

Yes, traditionalists like Viganò may hope the scandals will undermine this progressive-leaning pontiff. And some advocates for abuse victims (particularly the lawyers craving huge contingency fees) may go over the top in their demands. But abuse around the globe — and the hierarchy’s failure to confront it — represents the greatest threat to the Catholic Church in centuries.

Francis no doubt hoped to use his papacy to focus on other issues, but fate dealt him this crisis. Millions of Catholics are waiting for him to rise to the occasion.