I have to say that I have a hard time believing in the helplessness of the poor lay people in the face of the powerful and oppressive laity. If a child is abused or molested, why don't his parents speak out? If Father So-and-So is a bastard, why not treat him like the bastard he is?

I have an example of this Joe. Some years ago a PP in Donegal was arrested for a long spate of terrible abuse. A woman I know grew up in his parish. She told me the whole parish KNEW all along what happened to the children who were brought to the Parochial house every week. Nobody dared speak out for all those years, it was the way it was.

And the thing about it all, she was shocked, really shocked, when the news of the man's arrest made the newspapers. Shocked because a priest, her Parish Priest (before she moved to Clare) was arrested and that someone had spoken out against him.