Looking back on the last five years at America and forward to changes to come

We have seen an epochal change in the image of a Catholic priest in North America.

In his position, others might have begun to hate the world. Instead, Thomas Merton found he could not leave it alone.

Last month, Jason Stockley, the white police officer who killed Anthony Lamar Smith, a 24-year-old black man, was acquitted. How did the city of St. Louis respond?

Blaine founded SNAP in 1988, years after she was abused as an 8th grader by a Toledo, Ohio, priest who taught at the Catholic school she attended, according to the organization's website. Her pleas for help to Toledo's bishop were ignored. The group gained prominence in 2002 after the Boston Globe's stories on the priest sexual abuse scandal that rocked the Catholic Church.

The cardinal said while the world is "ever ready to headline the flaws of the church," the dynamic changes when "her loyal members are more than willing to own up to them."