Jim,

The Ryan report contains an observation that within the Industrial School system run by the church (and particularly the Christian Brothers) that children (particularly boys) who came from lower-income families and families with parents of low educational attainment levels were more likely to be abused than kids from families with higher educational attainment levels (the children of teachers, for instance).

This suggests that the abusers in the Church were careful not to abuse the children of parents who would have had the resources to do something about it.

In other words, parents from professional backgrounds were held in sufficient awe by the abusers in the church for the abusers to avoid antagonising them.

It follows that such people would have had the power to take action. They chose not to.