This pernicious secrecy, it emerged through the research of a lawyer in the United States, had actually been ordered in a secret document, Crimine Solicitationies, which came from the Vatican in 1962, bearing Pope John XXIII's seal, and was distributed to bishops around the world, instructing them in a policy of strictest secrecy in dealing with allegations of sexual abuse.

Almost universally throughout the industrial school system -- which at its most extensive, had several thousand boys and girls in what would now be called "care" -- the administration of the children's needs was seriously defective.  They were always hungry, malnourished, and in some cases they literally starved.  It has been said by the religious orders which managed these places that "times were hard".  This was emphasized in the context of times being hard generally in the country, through poverty, from the 1930s to the 1960s.  It was not so.  The State's subvention, or a per capita bias, was adequate to feed, clothe, house, heat and give health care to the inmates.  It was also sufficient for educational and craft skills to be taught.