I note that this comes under that which has been "proposed." While I'm not a Catholic, it is unclear to me why this isn't a command, and why it isn't first before all things. It seems to me that the should be both public and private confession and repentance happening all over the place.
In other words, the statement appears to be quite forward-looking, without first looking back and agreeing with God that the RC has itself sinned in hiring, retaining, and protecting such sin in the camp.
As Soothing Dave pointed out, this is the American cardinals talking to the (whole body of the) American bishops. They don't have the authority to "command" their brother bishops to do anything.
The Pope has that authority, but he'd rather the American cardinals propose his program themselves than look like the heavy. To use an analogy ... suppose you have a bunch of disobedient children partying and tearing the house down. You take the oldest one aside and explain clearly that either the party stops and the mess is cleaned up, immediately, or he's toast. He then goes in to the rest of the bad kids and says, "Uh, what I propose is this ..."
I note that this comes under that which has been "proposed." While I'm not a Catholic, it is unclear to me why this isn't a command, and why it isn't first before all things. It seems to me that the should be both public and private confession and repentance happening all over the place.
It has. For instance, my bishop, of Greensburg, PA, made the call for such a day of repentence for the Thursday before Easter. I am sure he is not the only bishop to make such a call. What is being proposed here is a unified national day of repentence.
Please try to understand the mechanism at work here. If you will, this is like a committee recommending that the entire Congress do something. The committee can be behind it 100%, but until Congress meets and approves it, it is still not law.
SD