Joe, you're talking about the catholic church being made a scapegoat as if it isn't to blame for covering up abuse, keeping perpetrators free from the justice system by moving them on to new parishes as soon as complaints became too public. It was reported in the Irish Times after the publication of the Murphy report there were thousands of files kept in the private safe of the arch bishop that were there for the sole reason to keep them out of the hands of investigators. And tha twas well after the McQuaid's reign.

When the scandal of the industrial school broke the church sent out two tough as nails nuns (the words of the government negotiators) who hammered out a deal that entailed limited responsibility for compensation, essentially putting the lion's share of compensation on the shoulders of the tax payer. When public outrage about this became too strong last year the church did a damage limitation exercise in which they offered to take on a larger portion of the compensation. But only a small portion of the total number of orders involved in the running of the schools actually pledged contributions to the compensation fund. Funds and assets were moved out of reach before any promises were made.

Yes, the church has different faces, good and bad. But the institution goes to great lengths to cover it's bad side and in doing so it's only looks worse for it.