By CHRISTOPHER MANION While Catholics await the white smoke to rise above the Sistine Chapel, we pray that the cardinals gathered there will hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and act on it. Amid the anticipation, however, a stubborn fact remains: whatever their choice of a new Supreme Pontiff, the challenge confronting the American laity will remain. And that challenge is grave indeed. The American hierarchy suffers from exhaustion, a historic numbness of spirit that can no longer be disguised. Their leaders have allowed chaos and confusion to be sown. Some quietly blame Pope Francis, and he certainly deserves it; some blame the laity — haven’t millions left the pews? But few bishops blame themselves. When Bishop Joseph E. Strickland of Tyler, Texas, suggested in 2018 that they do a little soul-searching, his days were numbered. Since 2002 they had hung together, lest they hang separately, continuing their cover-ups and billion-dollar payoffs. The guilty refused to quit — every one of them — so