The Pennsylvania grand jury report, detailing abuse, crimes, and coverups by Catholic priests over many years, provides plenty that sickens the stomach and soul:

--The “filth” -- to use Pope Benedict XVI’s word from Good Friday 2005 -- found from church to church, parish to parish, school to school, diocese to diocese.

--The more than 1,000 identified victims across Pennsylvania’s Catholic community over seven decades.

-- And, amid all the clerical squalor, the bishops’ talk of "inappropriate contact," "boundary issues," "sick leave," "nervous exhaustion," and other nauseating euphemisms.

Yes, I know the bulk of these violations occurred decades ago. Yes, I know that my Catholic Church has taken substantial steps over the last decade to make our places of worship and learning safe spaces for our boys and girls. On the heels of the Cardinal McCarrick disgrace and resignation, however, the Pennsylvania grand jury report makes plain that the church hierarchy has failed utterly their flock, the men and women, the boys and girls, the faithful families who have put their trust – wrongly, it turns out – in their shepherds.

Enough. It’s time for Catholic laity to step up and ensure that victims of clerical abuse and cover-ups have a second avenue of redress beyond the local bishop or chancellery office.

I say this as a life-long Catholic, a devoted and, I hope, devout Catholic mother of six. I say this as someone who loves her church more each day, who knows that the Judas priests and bishops are the rare exceptions and who knows how much good the church does in the world. I see this every day, and I am richer for it. The world is richer for it.

But it is this love for the church, this love for all the faithful priests and bishops and all the positive works of the church, that requires Catholic laymen and laywomen to take action now. We must help our Catholic Church reform itself and emerge from – yes, we must be frank – the rot and ruin that besets Christ’s church today.

So much in the Pennsylvania grand jury report breaks the heart when it doesn’t shock the conscience. One horror story, in particular, stood out for me. It’s the story of “Joe” and the loss of his Catholic faith.

As a high school student in Scranton, Joe would join his friends to play cards at the parish rectory. One night in 1961, Fr. Joseph T. Hammond called him up to his room, where he was naked and masturbating. He tried to fondle Joe. The victim and his family did everything they were supposed to do. They went to the police (no action) and his mother went to the diocese. There she was told that the chancellery office would investigate and take action. Joe remembered his mother saying that Bishop Jerome D. Hannan had been informed. Nothing happened. Hammond continued his ministry until his death in 1985. Although angry and distrustful, Joe and his wife built a family and successful life together, but the man lost his connection to his church home. Who wouldn’t?

“[I] didn't want to be any part of that Catholic faith anymore,” he told the grand jury, “especially since we were trying to report what happened to his supervisor or boss, like you would in a workplace. If someone does something bad, you report it to the boss and something happens. But this wasn't happening. When my parents got involved and the other parents got involved, I'm thinking now something is going to happen. It was just totally ignored. I had lost my faith basically because I didn't believe in all that stuff I was growing up with.”

Disgust and anger over what such priests and church officials have wrought are understandable – indeed, required – though disgust and anger are not enough. I want to be part of the solution so there are no more Father Hammonds, no more bishops who look the other way, and no more victims like Joe.

It’s hard to say what the solution looks like, precisely. But this much we know for sure:

First, the Catholic laity must be the key part of this reform. The U.S. bishops alone cannot be counted on to clean it up. Clericalism, careerism, and a misplaced sense of collegiality have contributed to this mess. It will take Catholic lay leaders to rid the church of this rot.

Second, we should not use this hour to round up scapegoats or ride our ideological hobby horses. Some outside commentators – and some prominent Catholics -- have focused on longstanding church theological debates between conservative and liberal Catholics. This festering issue has nothing to do with any of that. We need to put doctrinal disputes aside while we root felons and their enablers from our church – a goal every Catholic should share.

In the aftermath of what he termed “the Archbishop McCarrick catastrophe,” Los Angeles-based Bishop Robert Barron put it this way:

“Lots of commentators—left, center, and right—have chimed in to say that the real cause of the McCarrick disaster is, take your pick, the ignoring of Humanae Vitae, priestly celibacy, rampant homosexuality in the Church, the mistreatment of homosexuals, the sexual revolution, etc. Mind you, I’m not saying for a moment that these aren’t important considerations and that some of the suggestions might not have real merit. But I am saying that launching into a consideration of these matters that we have been debating for decades and that will certainly not admit of an easy adjudication amounts right now to a distraction.”

Third, mass and indiscriminate resignations or sackings are not enough. Although scapegoating is unjust and counterproductive, anyone whose abuse is demonstrated by credible evidence, or who has participated in a cover-up, should go – and go immediately. But we need to alter the culture of an institution that kept producing such predators.

In the meantime, prayer and fasting in penance for what Pope Francis has called these “atrocities” is certainly called for. But it is important that the cardinals and bishops and priests take up this call first. It is they, the leaders of the church, who have failed their flocks. It is laymen and laywomen who have been their victims – whether direct victims of the abuse or cover-ups or parishioners who watched their hard-earned contributions to the church go for settlement payouts.

I know the Catholic laity will come alongside their leaders, but it’s critical at this moment that our leaders recognize the cankered locus of this problem. The feast of Our Lady of Sorrows on Sept. 15 would seem a fitting day for the American Catholic clerics’ day of prayer and fasting. Before that, it would be equally fitting for Pope Francis to dedicate his pilgrimage to the Holy Island on Lough Derg to the reform of the church when he visits Ireland this week.

Catholics everywhere are sad, sickened, and yet also energized by this crisis. It’s time for us to double down on our Catholic Church. We have faced these problems before, and the Canticle of Mary offers a starting point amid the current ruins:

He has scattered the proud in their conceit.

He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,

and has lifted up the lowly.