You are quite right that this new attack is a leftist/secularist one. There is a new one every year right before Easter, just as there is one every year right before Christmas. And, yes, even non-Catholic Christians recognize that this attack is one whose motivation is not a sincere attempt to right any wrongs, it is motivated by a hatred of Christianity and of God Himself. Benedict XVI just happens to be the chosen target this year.
Here is a sensible Lutheran appraisal:
http://www.logia.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=121&catid=39:web-forum&Itemid=75
And you're right, NYer, they're the worst sort of hypocrites, and not only for the reason you think. Yes, they condemn the Catholic Church for homosexual priests even as they champion homosexuality, but it's even worse than that. They all held up their hands in horror when the Pope's personal preacher compared all these attacks to anti-Semitism. But why did the Jews suffer? For refusing to change. And now they hypocritically condemn for likewise refusing to change or modify its religious teachings. How can they condemn anti-Semitism with a straight face?
Actually, I know how they do it. From being the faithful people of HaShem who cling to His Torah even unto the death, the Jews have been recast as nonconformist, dissident freethinkers who suffered for eighteenth century style "religious freedom." But of course, the Jews had to be turned into icons of "religious freedom." Otherwise their survival for over three thousand years would constitute troubling evidence for the existence of G-d. Better just to pretend they're a nation of Lenny Bruces.
Sorry. I'm riding my hobbyhorse again.