Apologists for the lavender network that has thoroughly infiltrated the Church went straight to the "Vast Right Wing Conspiracy is responsible" defense.
No one has made any attempt to refute the charges. Bergoglio even goes so far as to say he will say not one word about this scandal.
They've now also floated the "everybody lies about sex" defense, claiming that "conservatives" don't want to go down this road because it will taint both Benedict and John Paul II.
Clearly that is so; the seminaries have been overrun and Malachi Martin, derided as a kook while he lived (and he is admittedly a problematic individual at best), has been saying that homosexuality is everywhere in the Church and that dark forces had taken over the Society of Jesus for at least 40 years.
The devastation wrought by the Church throughout Latin America even while Paul VI was Pope reinforce the degree to which evil has indeed been working in several of the Holy Orders.
We also have the usual Clintonite attempts to confuse about what is going on, as reliable quislings like Fr. James Martin, SJ rails about how this is all about "fear of homosexuals," while the news media feeds the masses the usual nonsense about "pedophiles."
Servers are adolescents, not prepubescent children, and seminarians are men. These abusers are not pedophiles; they are ordinary homosexuals whose promiscuous culture worships and lusts for youth and sexually fit young men. This has nothing whatsoever to do with pedophilia, it is simply homosexuals doing what homosexuals do.
In the last published assessment of sexual assault in the US military, in 2015, the majority (54%) of sexual assaults in the US armed forces were committed against men. Yes, there are a lot more men than women in the military, so there are more victims, but if we understand that only about 2.5-3.5% of the adult male population are homosexual, the statistic shows how evil this intrinsically disordered perversion is: <3% of the entire US military population is committing sex crimes against the other (nearly) 100%.
This is clearly the situation in the seminaries, where the percentage of homosexuals is far higher than in the military or the general population. Homosexuals are not harmless Glee characters, and they're particularly dangerous in institutionally confined settings.
Finally, there is the attempt to make the indictment against the hierarchy, particularly Bergoglio, "about sex" just as the Clintons did. Bergoglio knew that McCarrick had been sanctioned, but he freed him from all disciplinary burden. Bergoglio's transgressions are no more about sex than Bill Clinton's were. They are about the obstruction and cover-up of crimes.
The Church exists in Eternity. If we believe that, it cannot be destroyed. The enablers should ALL be reduced to laity and sentenced to live the rest of their lives in contemplation and prayer, and the perpetrators should be exposed, excommunicated, and, where the criminal statute of limitations still obtains, they should go to prison.
The latest PA GJ report included only six diocese. Two others had already been investigated, and people have forgotten that those investigations made similar findings. Other states are now ramping up investigations of their own. This is not going to go away, as far too many clerics, including the Pope are hoping it will.
The reason that the "it's just about sex" won't work, is that
a) priests are supposed to be celibate altogether, and not just to avoid sex with women.
b) the deflection, during the last set of exposures, by making all the *laypeople* undergo background checks, while continuing to play tonsil hockey or worse, with those in a position of vulnerability, rankles people.
c) #PoundMeToo becomes #EchoHomo. People get the idea of implicit coercion. d) Some of the tales of (in effect) gay orgies by high-ranking Vatican officials, ...well, they justify the most sordid anti-Catholic bigotry found in the Deep South in the US (e.g. I know people who were told, in all seriousness, that there was a secret underground tunnel between the nuns' and priests' lodgings in the Catholic Church in town).
Pass the popcorn.
Incidentally, everyone says that anyone pushing a "Conspiracy Theory" is by definition a Looney Tune.
Why is it, then, that Hillary got to push off tales of Bill's sexual misbehavior with "Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy" and not get discredited? And ALL THE MORE after the blue dress?