Despite misinformation, insults and (apparent) hatred spewing from various media outlets, Catholics should note that the Church's new norms dealing with abuse do NOT equate abuse by priests with attempted ordination of women ("attempted" because it is impossible to actually ordain women). This point was addressed when the norms were released (at the time, Monsignor Charles Scicluna specifically noted that "They are not on the same level" and that "they are [both] grave but on different levels"), but this fact has been "conveniently ignored" by much of the media.
To grasp the matter, it may be useful for Catholics to think in terms of civil law, for example misdemeanors vs. felonies. Should someone gather a comprehensive list of procedures for dealing with all felonies into a single volume, this does not mean that all felonies included in the volume are of equal gravity. For example, tax evasion and murder are both felonies, but these crimes obviously differ in gravity. Who would point to a volume covering all felonies and say the law equated all felonies simply because they appeared together in a volume which contained all felonies? Yet this misrepresentation is widely occurring in the media today with regard to the Church's new norms. Likewise, if a list of the 'top 20 felonies' were complied in a volume, the list would only mean they were all serious - not that they were all equal. Most reasonable people should be able to understand this distinction, yet much of the media seems unable (or unwilling?) to do so. Faithful Catholics should be prepared to clarify this issue, in charity, to persons who have been mislead by deceptive media coverage.
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