Fr. Gorden MacRae wrote an article for the First Things Blog in November of 1997 regarding the amazing mishandling of the priest scandal in which he quotes Fr. Richard Neuhaus:

"(It) is in the nature of witch hunts that those in politics, religion, and journalism who have promoted them, participated in them, or publicly endorsed them, have done so under the guise of ‘the public good,’ and with a perceived ‘public sanction’ that has historically consisted of two equally influential components: the noise of a few, and the silence of many.”