On the eve of an unprecedented Clergy abuse Summit, the Roman Catholic Church is continuing to do what it has perfected over the years: owning its complicity in the Sex abuse scandals engulfing it in bits and pieces!

First, His holiness Pope Francis creates headlines and ruffles feathers when he acknowledges abuse by priests where nuns are the victims. He furthers what he also does best by mentioning what we know ( only if you do your homework) as the dissolution of the French based order of St. Jean by his predecessor, Pope Benedict for engaging in pervasive activities he termed as borderline sexual slavery - his words, not mine!

Secondly, the Pope just defrocked former cardinal Theodore McCarrick whose scandals rocked the American Church and left many unanswered questions on how he ascended to his position given his scandals were well documented. What took so long? Is pope Francis cruising for a pyrrhic victory?

The upcoming Summit will solely focus on the abuse of children and rightly so, but while I can argue it is 1700 years too late, I wonder whether the Church based on its history has the willingness to act on any of its expected resolutions. I will accept to be a card carrying pessimist on this one because I have a myriad of reasons not to believe anything tangible will come out of this.

Rome is burning and the scandals are fanning the fire. There is little to no desire within the magisterium to reform the Church's handling of its most dangerous crisis since the Protestant Reformation which ended in 1648. It is not its inability I say, but rather the lack of political will and selfishness among the upper echelon of the Church.

The questions are numerous and the answers are scant, if any. The daily reports for any Catholics who care are reasons to doubt, to challenge, to pray and to demand that we be better! It is hard to believe what we hear, but we can continue burying our heads in the sand and expect the problems will go away, or we can be proactive and from our positions expect and ask for a better Catholic church. The upcoming Summit may be a step in the right direction, but that remains to be seen.