How Can You Defend the Catholic Church?

I often see comments from people who have just found my channel that is some approximation of, "How can you defend the Catholic Church?" And the implied, or sometimes explicit, accusation that accompanies this question often betrays a misunderstanding of what "The Catholic Church" is. So, in this video, I offer some insights into how to make distinctions between the institution, its members, and the Church as it truly is by pointing out that we tend to make these distinctions in other areas of life and community (such as the education system). Next, I spend some time discussing the many prejudices that I brought to my understanding of the Catholic Church which have slowly unraveled as I have devoted time to learning about the Church's history. Events like the Inquisition, the Crusades, and the supposed persecutions of scientists, aren't nearly what I was taught they were, if not outright fabrications relying on outdated historical narratives composed by Protestants or other rivals of the Catholic Church.