Ms Dowd is a practicing Catholic, but she has no qualms about ripping them a new one if she feels they are wrong. The Church ( the real "The Church" :) ) recently censured a book on sexuality written by a nun.

Here is part of Dowd's column:

This latest ignoble fight with a noble nun adds to the picture of a Catholic Church in a permanent defensive crouch, steeped in Borgia-like corruption and sexual scandals, lashing out at anyone who notes the obvious: They have lost track of right and wrong.
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Imagine anyone in good standing in the Mormon Church writing something like that and not being called in to the Mormon version of the Inquisition.

Full column at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/06/opinion/dowd-is-pleasure-a-sin.html

Catholics usually do what they feel is right, no matter what the pope may spout in Rome.

Apparently, the same goes for local priests. The pope's messages quite often wind up in the circular file.

The Catholic Danites - you know, these guys:
http://www.catholicleague.org/about-us/

Dowd's behavior is considered very acceptable by most Catholics (excluding the lunatic fringe, which every organization has). This is because the Catholic Church has largely accepted its history, which includes some of the worst people who ever existed along with some of the best.

The Church often does things that are wrong and even evil. Few Catholics, of which I am one, would disagree with this.

Sr Margret Farley's responds to the notification (she admits she knows what she wrote is not in line with the official doctrines and teachings of the Catholic Church)

http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/statement-mercy-sister-margaret-farley

There is corruption in religions obviously. The difference is many in the Catholic church do not put up with their leadership and those in the church who are intolerant, and crooked. In the mormon church, the prophet is the law and if you disagree you are basically admitting you are not mormon. Fine with me, but the mormon church might be the most dogmatic and authoritarian on the face of the Earth.

MD often takes on the RCC. This is just the latest, and she is pretty spot on with her criticism of CDF criticizing the nun's book. But this also is very "inside baseball" type stuff. The nun's book probably has a very limited audience (RCC theologians) and the CDF whining is even more of an obscurity. To the normal everyday Catholic, this is barely a blip, if that.