The Insignificance of the McCarrick Report

The Vatican has finally released the long-awaited and long-delayed McCarrick Report. The 450-page document is touted in its introduction as a thorough examination of how this man, Theodore McCarrick, became a powerful and influential cardinal archbishop of the Diocese of Washington, D.C., and the leading figure in the American Church’s post-sex-abuse reforms all while his habit of sexual abuse were known to so many in the church.
Along with many lay Catholics I hoped the report would expose the rotten influence network that protected McCarrick and with it bring about the downfall of his proteges and those who had to have known about his misdeeds. I was hoping the report would indicate how he used his fundraising skills to protect himself from scrutiny including the infamous “envelope system.” In short, I hoped the report would expose the ongoing conspiracy of silent complicity with evil.
Instead, the report is replete with bureaucratic sentences aimed at protecting the establishment. It feebly attempts to put blame on a handful of priests in New Jersey, mostly deceased, and it sort of blames (but excuses), the deceased and sainted Pope John Paul II. And, in a sort-of expected move, the Report also lashes out at Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who has for the past several years played the role of whistleblower.