Sadly the current case in Canada is just an egregious example of something many of us have experienced. I went to a Roman Catholic school in north London in the 60s where extreme physical brutality and sexual abuse were prevalent.

It was not unusual for the brothers to pulls tufts of hair from boys as young as seven, while the cane was administered with muscular enthusiasm for the slightest perceived transgression, with particular zeal being reserved for those sins which were perceived as bucking the spiritual system - five or six strokes for talking during Mass but just one for kicking the shit out of a fellow pupil springs to mind.

Often an entire class would be beaten for the transgression of one boy, and when there was no cane to hand masters would improvise, using heavy wooden blackboard erasers around the head, boots, shoes and cricket bats. It wasn't unusual to see blood drawn. The boys routinely had their buttocks and genitals groped and fondled by one old pederast priest (now, thankfully dead - and in a way it's a shame I lapsed, because I like to think of that horrible old bastard burning in hell for eternity) and were rewarded for cuddles with chocolates.

As I write this I'm aware that it seems shocking. And yet..and yett..

To us at the time, so young and so trusting of those who, we were told, were special in the eyes of God, this was the only normality we knew. I distinctly remember being jealous of the boys who got the chocolates abnd thinking it unfair that Father I***** would only fondle the plumper boys and single them out for special favours. As a skinny whippet myself, I felt excluded.

The beatings were seen as a natural annoyance, and universal and as inevitable as ants on a picnic. We all became hardened to the pain and would sometimes deliberately goad masters in some absurd sense of bravado and pre-pubescent machismo, just so we could get the highest number of strokes that week.

And today, when I look back, it's with mixed feelings. Hindsight tells me that what those bastards did was evil, but I also remember of couple of teachers for their genuine kindness and passion for education in its best sense (much as I imagine Joe to be). How they ever managed to coexist with the bastards I'll never know, but they did and I have them to thank for a love of learning. How much I owe to the bastards is not for me to say.

All I can say is that I wish religious institutions had more people like Joe in them and fewer like Lucille Poulin. Sadly they don't, and the barking nun is not such an unusual creature for those of us brought up in the Holy Mother Church.

As Joe says, it's not religion that's to blame per se; it's the fact that deranged and deluded people use it as a shield and crutch to mask and justify their appalling behaviour.