I actually have things to say about this, but I had saved it for a NYTimes bloggy thing, but it hasn’t run, for some reason – I don’t know if the editor lost it or what. I figure that’s probably the HS because he mentioned it again today, and might even mention it again, so we’re not finished looking at it. If you’d like to post, do so here.
There have been varied reactions so far, and while I was disappointed that the Crypt chapel wasn’t transformed into a woodshed (as unrealistic as that is to expect for a million reasons) and as much as I don’t hear a real grappling with the role of the bishops besides “badly handled” – perhaps that communicates enough. The point I read today that assuaged my sense of this was what Anne Burke, formerly of the National Review Board had to say about the Pope’s words to David GIbson at Beliefnet:

Burke and two other board member met with then-Cardinal ratzinger in the Vatican in January 2004 to tell him the real story of the crisis which she said was not being communicated by the bishops to Rome. Ratzinger listened, and followed up. “We named names,” Burke said.
I was interested in Burke’s reaction to the pope’s words to the bishops last night, in which he noted that some of them had “badly handled” the cases–the first public acknowledgment that the bishops themselves contributed to the scandal.
Burke called this morning and her verdict was unequivocal: “I can’t tell you how delighted I was to read what he said,” Burke said. “I think something directly from him was very important.” And she, said it was important that it was done publicly–there were reports that the American bishops wanted to keep last night’s meeting with the bishops closed to media, as they were anticipating that Benedict’s message might have some teeth, on the abuse issue as well as other topics. But the Vatican–reportedly–asked that it be televised. “He had to do that,” Burke said of the public comments. “He”–the pope–“knows,” she said of the bishops’ track record. And now, “He let them know that he knows.” Based on her past meeting with Cardinal Ratzinger, she said, “I knew in my heart of hearts he was going to do something like this.”
Burke has been a forceful voice for greater accountability for bishops, something that has not exactly made her a darling of the hierarchy. She would like to see more done, but thinks Benedict’s statements were the crucial signal.