"Catholic bishops want to still have a discrete voice," he said.

"The bishop wants both groups to get back to the table to discuss our differences and move forward with reconciliation," he said.

There are all sorts of reasons that many bishops do not want to touch this issue.

And even if enough bishops wanted to try, the king would never permit it.

The last thing the bishop wanted was for the police to start nosing around too much just there.

Theologians said the bishops did not want to see too much power concentrated in the hands of one person.

Would a bishop want to sit in on a class?

Most bishops clearly want to avoid pain, for themselves or Catholic higher education.

"The bishop wants to see you in the morning," he said at last.

"No bishop wants to add his name to that list."