Contrary to News Reports

The convocation of the consistory of Cardinals is not a meeting summoned by the Pope to discuss the sex abuse scandal:

What that means is that the cardinals will talk about the sex abuse crisis for maybe 45 minutes to an hour, and most of that time will be consumed by a report from Levada.

To call that a "summit" -- and even more, to expect any dramatic new policy or gesture to result from it -- is highly exaggerated.

Finally, there's nothing "unprecedented" about the idea of the cardinals gathering to discuss issues facing the church. This may the first time the sexual abuse crisis has formally been on the agenda, but that's a precedent only in the technical sense. This is hardly the first time cardinals have been forced to grapple with the crisis.

Bottom line: It's misleading to over-hype the importance of next week's gathering, creating expectations unlikely to be fulfilled.

It would also, by the way, be unfortunate to let the other topics be blotted out of the sky. As critical as the crisis inarguably is, questions such as the relationship of Catholicism with the other religions of the world, or the struggle for religious freedom in the early 21st century, also deserve their moment in the sun.

If you're among the shrinking and embattled Christian population of Iraq, for example, you might think that a tight focus on the sex abuse crisis to the exclusion of religious freedom is another example of the Western media imposing an agenda, to the detriment of their own life-and-death struggles. That, at least, is something worth thinking about...