No one other than a lifetime Catholic would buy that. But I think, rather like no one but Donald Trump's base buying his BS and lies ... it is sufficient for the Pope to convince the sheeple.

I do not think Frances maintains a personal stable of altar boys or has actively covered up (necessarily) for others, or anything like that. But he IS complicit in the same way that my kindly Catholic next door neighbors are complicit. He is "aghast" in the same way that they are. "Aghast" enough to be uncomfortable, not aghast enough to take a real stand. My neighbors talk about it, but will never leave the church, or go and protest outside the their diocesan offices. Frances will talk about it, but will never hand over the miscreants to real justice, or provide real restitution to victims. They will give up a few scapegoats where they can't continue to protect them, and then we'll have another massive scandal in a few months or years. So it goes.

Frances is effectively the president of a giant multinational corporation and his job, whether he likes it or not, is to do everything he can to protect the interests of that corporation. The most we'll ever see out of him is incremental change. I tend to think he sincerely wishes he could do more. But he can't, and still be the pope. He could stand up for what's morally right and necessary but in the process he would, at least in his own eyes and in the eyes of many "destroy" the church.

Bono is obviously getting a bit deaf in his old age, it should read "the pope is a ghastly church sex abuse enabler".