The chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee for Religious Liberty told a Washington audience Sept. 12 he is concerned about a "steady movement" in the U.S. away from religious institutions and an erosion in the view that religious liberty must be valued.
Since dropping his bombshell letter, the archbishop has gone into hiding, making intermittent statements to those news outlets who share his opposition to Francis.
Sexual and physical abuse by priests and religious and the scandal of its cover-up by church authorities thrive in countries where the Catholic Church is "elitist and clericalist," Pope Francis told Jesuits in Ireland in August.
The leaders of the U.S. bishops' conference said they shared with Pope Francis how the church in the United States has been "lacerated by the evil of sexual abuse."