Jim, is that recent? That brings out my buried Lewesian anti-potpourriishness. Rooted in the suspicion that the Papacy regarded itself as over-riding the sovereignty of local governments. That members of the church should be instructed to be complicit in covering up a crime, and such a crime, beggars belief.

Now if he were instructing church members not to collaborate with local laws of the sort established in Nazi Germany, or possibly about to be enacted in Uganda, that would be one thing. But to propose that crimes which the founder of the church clearly denounced should come under that sort of protection is incredible.

Joe, your account of the separate tracks for bishops and priests explains much I have read here. In the Anglicans, the bishops arise from the priests. The admin is separate, as far as I can make out, with characters called Deans, and Archdeans, who have also risen from the parish levels, but are more to do with the fabric and finance, while the bishops do the pastoral stuff.

Penny