What to Watch for in the New Year, by Stephen P. White

By Stephen P. White, The Catholic Thing, Jan. 2, 2019

The beginning of a new year is usually a time for hope, a chance to make a fresh start. Given all the Church has been through in the past year, the usual optimism that comes with a new year –and a new decade – seems a bit diminished.

But it hasn’t been all bad. In fact, some very important steps have been taken in the right direction: The American bishops met on retreat in Mundelein; Theodore McCarrick was laicized; the presidents of the world’s episcopal conferences met in Rome for a summit on clerical sexual abuse; Pope Francis published new universal norms (Vos estis lux mundi) for holding bishops accountable.

In June, the USCCB took some modest, but important measures of its own. Pope Francis lifted the pontifical secret for several kinds of cases and accusations involving sexual abuse by clergy, raised the statutory age for the definition of child pornography (to 18 years, up from 14 years), and opened new roles for lay canonists in the trials of priests accused of abuse crimes.  ….

Read more here  https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2020/01/02/what-to-watch-for-in-the-new-year/