Many decades ago, on my first day as the designated conservative on the editorial page staff of the Los Angeles Times, I attended the morning editorial meeting presided over by our courtly editor, Anthony Day.

The big front-page story in the Times on that day was a long profile of a priest who was an administrator at a local Roman Catholic college. A convivial type and avid golfer, the priest was adept at cultivating wealthy businessmen on the links, and elsewhere — and reeling in substantial contributions to the school. There was no evidence that the priest had done anything wrong, or even unseemly, since the money was used to underwrite research and scholarships. But there was an unmistakable tone to the story — abetted by anonymous observers of events — that there was, in fact, something unseemly, possibly illegal, certainly troubling, in the habit of a Catholic priest hobnobbing with the rich and powerful in pursuit of money.