Wonderful post Joe.   

But I do have to answer one point. You ask

> 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 know you don't mean it that way, but this is so off the mark as to be insulting. Please don't dismiss our real injustices with simplistic "solution"-questions that just don't apply to our situation.

People in Ireland didn't question the Church. Society was rigidly bound by one religion, backed up by the government, and if you made trouble you faced serious social consequences, not to mention (as you were told) spiritual ones. It was a culture of conformity, denial, and maintaining appearances at all costs. I can't even begin to do it justice in a blog post because it's so complex, with many strata of underlying reasons built up over time. But the information is out there for anyone who wants to make the effort to learn about them. Without this understanding, one is not in a position to stand in judgment on people living in another country in another time.

There were no means of redress available, no place else to go, no social service to report to. Society, Church and government were interlocked in a powerful triumvirate in a way that people living outside cannot appreciate. There were simply not the alternatives available to anyone who made trouble for the ruling stratum.

"Treat him like the bastard he is?" HOW? How do you "treat" the most powerful member in your community like anything? He's the one who treats you. Don't expect any back-up from your neighbours. You'll just find yourself a pariah. Oh, and you were putting your soul in peril. Don't like your local priest? Tough - he's the only one around.

That is, when the abuse was even known about. It happened in secrecy, kids were emotionally blackmailed into keeping quiet about it - it was only your word against theirs and They were stronger than you. Time after time you read or hear now-grown survivors say that when they did complain to their parents, they were simply punished for lying. Denial runs very, very deep here. It was a way of coping. It still is.

Apart from that one point, I think your post is excellent and moving. Of course it's time to move on, but you have to remember that here a lot of this stuff is still coming out. The memoirs and survivor accounts have only surfaced recently and I don't think they're finished.

These cannot be moved on FROM until they've had their fair hearing. And that's still in the process of happening.