For a Catholic involved in any kind of public defence of the Church, the past couple of weeks have been like piloting a spacecraft through an asteroid field. Genuine concerns have been mixed in with deception, sensationalism, malevolent attacks and spiteful cartoons. For the average "blogger in pyjamas" trying to do something good at the end of a day's work, it has been difficult to keep up and to offer a balanced assessment in the face of opportunistic anti-Catholic propaganda whilst at the same time recognising the real evil perpetrated by child abusers and those who genuinely failed in their duty to stop them.
Responding to the attempts to smear the Holy Father and, through him, the whole Catholic Church, the Catholic Herald website has published
The Pope and the abuse scandal: a guide for perplexed Catholics. This is a great example of co-operation between professional journalists and the informal blogger-twitter-facebook flotilla of little ships.
