Only recently an article appeared in the Irish Times quoting an abuse victim's story of the first reaction when she told her parents what had happened to her. Her father took his belt and beat her for the 'lies' she told about what the PP had done to her.


While I have no doubt that on a personal level catholics abhor what has taken place, there's still the creeping suspicion the church would have liked the whole scandal to just go away and too many apologies were only issued under the overwhelming pressure of public opinion.

The way orders initially tried (and managed) to off-load the main burden of payments to victims to the Irish state may be taken as an indication the willingness to accept the consequences of all revelations and scandals was maybe not as complete as some would like us to believe.