To state the obvious: Part of the explanation why fever dream conspiracy theories are so rampant in the Catholic Church right now, is that many Catholics do not believe they can trust those in power in the Church.

Theodore McCarrick’s Human Sacrifices https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/10/opinion/theodore-mccarrick-investigation.html?smid=tw-share

The biggest question for the Church right now is how that trust can be restored. It is a mistake to think the crisis is in our past; it is our present and we still have much work to do to make sure that our institutions are not places where sex predators can become so powerful.

The problem is not unique to the Church but the *sort* of harm that can be done by a cleric in a church context is uniquely horrible and spiritually damaging.