The one involving the Legion of Christ has been completed.

Anyone who thinks this will have a simple and tidy conclusion are kidding themselves. The Legion is intimately linked to its fraudulent, devilish founder and purging them completely of his influence while keeping the value of the group will be a long and difficult process (unless, of course, Pope Benedict decides to just abolish the Legion, in which case its members will need to find new spiritual homes).

Of course the trouble within the Legion is just one in a whole host of such problems facing the Church today. The various crises related to sexual misconduct which have rocked the Church over the past few years – in the U.S., the Legion, Ireland, and now all of Europe – are a result in so many ways of unfaithfulness and fornication with the world. In the Old Testament, whenever Israel faced troubles, whether from inside or outside their nation, the prophets told them that the root of their problems was their unfaithfulness to God and His covenant. This unfaithfulness was inevitably likened to adultery (see: Hosea). Do we really think that things are different for us?

As Catholics, we too have been unfaithful to God’s covenant, and the covenant we have with God is much greater than the Old Covenant. We have the sacraments as the means in which to stay within that covenant, and we can even receive the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ! Yet we have continually fornicated with the world, accepting its values instead of the values of God. And the most important word in the previous sentence is “we” – do not think that the problems of the Church are someone else’s problems. If you are a Catholic, then they are our problems, helped along by our sins.

The solution to these problems is not some new program or even some institutional change. It is repentance. If we beg God to forgive our sins, then perhaps He will be merciful to us.