I still feel the pain of what occurred more than 50 years ago, but the church—our church—has asked for forgiveness. I will give it another chance.

But much of the church remains -- its soaring ceilings lined with beautiful frescos, its towering Corinthian columns and even its ornate wooden confessional.

Regardless of federal funding rules, proselytizers, practitioners and preachers should be aware of state tort laws that impose liability for harmful speech. Whether religious speech is immune from defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress claims depends on the context and content of the speech.

As early as 1994, while McCarrick was archbishop of Newark, a woman expressed concerns about McCarrick to the papal nuncio in Washington, Agostino Cacciavillan.

“It is unacceptable for the federal government to walk away from its shared commitment under the Medicaid program to ensure care for all low-income and vulnerable individuals in our country,” reads a statement released on Jan. 31 by the Catholic Health Association, the domestic justice committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Catholic Charities USA.

A prolific Catholic writer is himself now the subject of a biography from Liturgical Press.