The Church has been “beaten up” over the last 10 or 12 years because, at its highest possible echelons, it functioned as an international conspiracy to obstruct justice regarding the crime of sexual assault. In the old formulation, these crimes — which have still gone largely unpunished, as when Bernard Cardinal Law from Boston beat feet to his sinecure at the Basilica Of Our Lady Of The Bullshit Alibi in Rome — were such a “scandal to the faithful” that most of the Catholic laity, here and around the world, were fundamentally disgusted by the sub-primate morality of many of the primates in question. Most Catholics I know don’t believe the Church has taken a beating over the last decade; in fact, they believe a lot of ermined layabouts haven’t gotten half of what they deserve. They’re certainly not as prepared as Weigel apparently is to link the pale and sporadic justice dealt out to the victims of the hierarchy’s monstrous crimes to the current politically driven foolishness regarding whether or not Catholic institutions should have to choose between obeying the law or abandoning some tax breaks. If the White House surrenders in any way to this nonsense, somebody in the political operation should be cleaning out his desk by the end of business today. There is no risk in sticking to your guns here.