Michael Mazza is calm, fair, and devastating in his analysis of the toothless new policy statement on abuse adopted by the US bishops’ conference. I’m not nearly so calm, but I think it’s fair to say that nothing much has changed.

The party line, as expressed by Bishop Knestout (former secretary to Uncle Ted McCarrick, remember), amounts to: “We did our best. We’re still doing our best. We’re learning. Trust us.”

Since by that reckoning the bishops’ “best” was what created this disaster, why would anyone trust them? They aren’t learning; they’re still treating the whole thing as a PR problem, a damage-control exercise.

Back in 2002, in the press room in Dallas, reporters were saying to each other, “They don’t get it.” They still don’t.