Much of the damage that has been done to Catholicism in recent decades — by the abuse scandals, by the ongoing horror stories of mid-twentieth century Catholic life in Ireland, by forms of intellectual dissent that empty Catholicism of the
patrimony of truth
bequeathed to it by the Lord, by the counter-witness of Catholics in public life who fail to stand firm for the dignity of the human person at all stages of life and in all conditions of life — is a matter of self - imposed wounds, which Church authorities have an obligation to address.