Signs of the Times: Prayer breakfasts are generally not controversial events in the Catholic world, except when they are stages for giving awards to people like Attorney General William Barr.
Michael Sean Winters rounds up political news and commentary: The state of evangelical churches; Carl Anderson urges Knights to support Kavanaugh; Bishop Finn gets a pass in Missouri.
With the Aug. 14 release of a Pennsylvania grand jury report on priestly sexual abuse of minors, the U.S. Catholic Church again is confronting questions about its response to abuse allegations dating back several decades.
The head of the U.S. bishops said they will invite the Vatican to conduct an apostolic visitation to the country to lead a "full investigation" into questions still surrounding revelations of sexual abuse by former cardinal Archbishop Theodore McCarrick.
Distinctly Catholic: Catholic conservatives are finally taking the clergy sex abuse crisis seriously. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has been accused, and they are hijacking the crisis to attack Francis.
We say: It's time to revisit the pope's 2015 proposal to establish a tribunal that would hold responsible bishops and religious superiors who mishandle cases of clergy sex abuse.
