Downsizing Peter's God

The Roman Catholic Church is downsizing. A lot. Sixteen of 48 churches in Newark, NJ. The Newark diocese is the first to publicly announce a far-reaching plan for reorganization.

When the abuse scandal broke I was so angry I called for the RC Church to pull itself down, brick by brick.

Now that it's happening I can't help feel sad.

To my faux journalist's eye, the church missed a public relations opportunity. All they had to do was say that the downsizing was a choice to make pedophilia-related wrongs right; to call it an act of perfect contrition.

Perhaps it's not too late.

They might use this time of trouble to pull themselves together - as when the United States felt itself emotionally and spiritually pulled together after 9/11. The upside of tragedy: empathy.

If the RC Church doesn't get its act together soon I fear it will disappear. Can't say - with its attitudes about sex and women - that I shall miss it. Still, it will be a sad day when the Vatican is sold to the Italian equivalent of Donald Trump.

- Watson, out