As Theodore McCarrick faces criminal charges for allegedly sexually abusing a 16-year-old boy, the disgraced former cardinal’s legal defense team is now claiming he is in steep mental and physical decline and therefore not able to stand trial.

Cardinal Pell, who died Tuesday, had written a memo outlining his concerns about Pope Francis' papacy, which was published soon after his death.

The Vatican said Monday it has reopened the investigation into the 1983 disappearance of the 15-year-old daughter of a Vatican employee, months after a new Netflix documentary purported to shed new light on the case.

Though he is criticized for the sexual abuse crisis in the church during his papacy, Benedict XVI did more than anyone before him to turn the Vatican around on clergy sexual abuse.

"It is really important for [religious orders] to set the story straight immediately and to reveal all the known facts in a case."

Nation-states have modeled a holistic approach that involves all who were affected by injustice and may contribute to a solution. The church can do the same as a response to the clerical sex abuse crisis.