Did the wife appologize for her husband hitting the priest?

>Hi everybody,
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>Here goes a puzzle from the serious started by Dan, e.g. you can ask questions, on that I can answer either Yes or No or May be/Not relevant
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>A woman with her husband seats on opposite side of a bench (? / seat) to a catholic priest in a small coach (wagon) travelling on a country (read - bad) road. On one of the bump of the road the wagon is shaken and a man hits the priest by his head into his belly. After that incident the priest turns to a woman and says "Thank you". Why did he say it?
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>Think outside of the box < g >