text: It is possible that retirement will free Fr. Daly to speak honestly and openly about these issues.  The PTB can be draconian in punishing priests who dare to speak out beyond a certain point.  This is especially risky for priests who are approaching retirement age.  Bishop Geoffrey Robinson of Australia is one of the most outspoken critics of the church's policies of silencing victims and protecting priests who sexually abused young people. He headed the Catholic commission investigating those crimes, and wrote a powerful book - "Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church" . But he admits to being almost ashamed that he waited to publish the book until after he was retired. He served the church starting as a junior seminarian.  If he had published the book early, he knew the church's punitive mechanism could have left him without even retirement funds. When seeing him speak in person, I felt so sad, because it was clear that he is heartbroken that the church hid these crimes.