It struck me that what the media wants is for the Church to feel so ashamed of its activities that it will not speak up against any evil or injustice. It doesn't matter if any of the accusations against the church are true. All that matters is that the Church is silenced. I've actually seen this strategy many times before. When the Church speaks out on any issue whatsoever, someone is bound to bring up sex abuse allegations as some sort of proof that the Church should just but out.
I am starting to realize one of the main goals of the media coverage of the Church - to remove in people's minds its moral authority. Obviously this is totally absurd. There has been abuse in the church, but the vast majority of people in the Church, such as priests and nuns, are innocent. They have valid points to make and deserve to be heard.
The media and many individuals do not like hearing what the Church has to say. They only want approval for their actions. The Church speaks the Truth, and people are trying hard to silence the Truth.
Imagine a school where there are 50 teachers. One teacher is accused of sexual abuse. Now, imagine someone saying that no one should listen to any of the teachers in the school because of this. The school has no authority to teach anything because of what this teacher did. That would be absurd.
Seeing as relativism is the philosophy of the day, people don't know how to evaluate what is said to them.
So credibility is the only intellectual currency that matters.
As long as they can smear the Church, anti-Catholics can get people to focus on past sins, and not on the substance of what is being said by Church representatives.
This game could be easily played with any collectivity. "Oh, you're a Liberal-- your Pierre Trudeau racked up billions of dollars in debt-- why should we listen to you on economic matters."
Etc.
