So I think it's a good assumption that the Church might also justify its use of legal maneuvers to avoid hurting innocent people with public embarrassment in much the same way.

There's absolutely no evidence that the Catholic Church systematically uses legal maneuvers to avoid hurting innocent people.

And there's plenty of evidence that the Catholic Church has systematically attempted to cover up criminal activity.

Lawyers, journalists, police and psychologists are not a monolithic pseudo-corporate multinational, and are hardly comparable to the Church's institutionalised attempts to claim moral authority while deriving political influence through deliberately sanctioned abuse.

The closest comparable organisation is Scientology - and not even Scientology has been credibly abused of systematic child abuse.

This is one of the rare situations where the moral questions are entirely black and white.

'Other people do it too' is hardly a defence against them - because they don't on anything like the same scale, or for the same reasons.