I'm sorry you're irritated, but...

What irritates me is your assumption that I'm "gratuitously" and intentionally slamming the RC hierarchy. I'm sorry you're irritated, but a throwaway line about an unsubstantiated story about a Catholic bishop at the end of a post about Methodists is definitionally gratuitous. That word is what it is, it doesn't mean wrong, or malevolent, or whatever, it just means that it had no purpose in telling the story at hand. As a journalist you should know the value of economy of narration.