Has that been your recent experience on social media sites? I feel many of us have noticed a wrong and shone a light on it.

Others have, as you say, acted to defend the wrong.

With the child abuse issue, you’re correct, the way it was handled has amounted to a cover up (yes I know I look as if I am doing it now) but for the vast majority of practising Catholics, while shocked, dismayed and amazed at what has been bought to light, they are glad it has been.

They also react to the handling of it the same way as anyone else ‘what did they do that for?’ But in the mean time have just continued with their Catholic faith in their Catholic lives

To link the manipulator’s crime with the targeted institution be it the Church or say a secular institution reinforces the perpetrators concealment and scapegoating.

The politically motivated conditioned overreaction to particular crimes when in the service of malevolent third parties weaponizes those crimes and makes them ten times more evil and destructive.

I have learned from bitter experience that Catholicism is very tribal and they will work together to protect anyone within the tribe, irrespective of their terrible conduct.

I suppose it’s in a misguided attempt to protect their church, but evil must come in to the light, be exposed and then dealt with appropriately.

And it’s in the covering up that the world is angry with the Church.