However, shooting the messenger does not kill the message. As much as they appear to believe it does. It's a constant barrage of messengers and messages being delivered. They just fire in all directions, hoping to down something. When that fails, there's always the "hail Mary", running to the RM and complaining about an "i" that wasn't dotted. Whatever it takes to change the subject and the focus.
As an aside to your post, you may be interested to know that today is St. Jude Day for the RCC. The patron saint of desperate, lost causes..