Cardinal Brady is the spitting image of Cardinal Bernard Law and for sure he has one evil Achilles Heel, Father Brendan Smyth, whom he condoned and covered-up – just like Blessed John Paul II had 2 evil Achilles Heels – Cardinal Bernard Law and Fr. Marcial Maciel whom he personally loved and covered-up and who are the poster boys for his entire JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/2011/05/heil-satanas-jp2-patron-saint-of.html . Like Holy Father like Holy Sons the Vatican is sinking in moral bankruptcy and Catholics should really stop giving their millions to the Vatican Mammon Bank because those billions of dollars are enjoyed only by a few men from the Pope to his cronies living in luxury at the Vatican Tower
Cardinal Brady must resign immediately because he does not deserve the secular “diplomatic immunity” of a secular leader, and Irish politicians are correct to ask for his resignation because even they themselves do not enjoy such privilege as a “diplomatic immunity”. No religious men should have any “Diplomatic immunity” privileges -- just because they claim to be witches or wizards who can re-incarnate God or Jesus Christ. It is enough, after 2,000 years of Vatican Evils and Pope Crimes, people must stop believing in the “supernatural” powers of these evil men. (Women do not hold such high ranking position in the Catholic Church) Cardinal Brady is an evil “Prince of the Church” with a millstone hanging on his neck. Bishop Donal McKeown criticized politicians saying they “lack ‘statemanship’” to demand the resignation of Cardinal Brady, but it is Cardinal Brady who is void of statesmanship. Like Cardinal Bernard Law, he too must resign in disgrace because his evil Achilles Heel is now uncovered and he can longer hide it…and he has nowhere to hide, unless the Pope will take him to glorify him Rome just like John Paul II did with criminal Cardinal Bernard Law, read more here http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2012/01/boston-10th-anniversary-and-bernie-law.html.
May 1, 2012
It is very timely that on the first year anniversary of Opus Dei Golden Cow Blessed John Paul II, revelations have hit Ireland that Cardinal Brady, the Catholic primate of all-Ireland failed to protect children from sexual abuse by a paedophile priest and he is being asked to resign...just like Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law who confessed in public to transferring 80 pedophile priests from one parish to another but John Paul II did not bother to meet any of these pedophile priests or their victims. Cardinal Law resigned as Archbishop of Boston but John Paul II papal farted at us Bostonians by taking him to glorify him in Rome. That is why Blessed John Paul II is the Patron Saint of Pedophiles, Pederasts Rapists-Priests. With Cardinal Brady at its head, Ireland is like the vast Catholic Church with Benedict Ratzinger & Marcial Maciel who are 2 criminal heads of the Mystical Body and Legion of Christ , read more here http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2012/03/benedict-ratzinger-marcial-maciel-are-2.html Below we will post all on-going articles regarding Brady.
Read our related articles on Hypocrite Benedict silenced Fr Tony Flannery – A compilation… but he does not silence Cardinal Bernard Law and JP2 Army – John Paul II Pedophile Priests http://popecrimes.blogspot.ca/2012/04/hypocrite-benedict-silenced-outspoken.html
Heil Satanas JP2 Patron Saint of Pedophiles, Pederasts Rapists-Priests! John Paul II is the same yesterday and today-- he cannot protect children http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/2011/05/heil-satanas-jp2-patron-saint-of.html
The narcissism and grandiosity of John Paul II, Cardinal Bernard Law, Benedict XVI, and Bishop Roger Vangheluwe are nauseating and despicable http://jp2m.blogspot.ca/2011/04/narcissism-and-grandiosity-of-john-paul.html
May 17 updates
Cardinal Brady stays in post, despite sex-abuse allegations
IRELANDChurch Times (United Kingdom)
by Gregg Ryan Ireland Correspondent
THE Roman Catholic Primate of All Ireland, Cardinal Seán Brady, is resisting calls for his resignation, after revelations that he failed to inform parents of children who were being abused by the late Brendan Smyth, a paedophile priest (News, 19 March; 21 May 2010), after he acted as note-taker at an inquiry in 1975, where a 14-year-old boy gave evidence.
At the time, Dr Brady was working in the diocese of Kilmore, and already held a doctorate in Canon Law. His Bishop, the late Dr Francis McKiernan, asked him to be part of a three-member canonical inquiry into the allegations against Fr Smyth, a priest of the Norbertine order.
The boy, Brendan Boland, gave the names and addresses of five other children who were also being abused by Smyth, but their parents were never told. As a result, some of them were continually abused for a further 15 years.
On Wednesday of last week, a BBC Northern Ireland documentary, This World: The Shame of the Catholic Church, was aired, giving details of Cardinal Brady’s failure to alert the children’s parents. His response was that he was merely the note-taker, and that even Dr McKiernan had limited control over Smyth, whose Abbot at the time had full jurisdiction. He said that he was devastated on learning that Smyth had continued to abuse the named children for further years.
Sorrows: a Reflection on the case of Cardinal Brady, by Brian Fahy
IRELANDThe Association of Catholic Priests
Sorrows
Cardinal Sean Brady, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, is seventy-two years of age now. He seems to be a kindly man, a good man. But he is under fire. Calls for his resignation have been made following a recent television documentary about child abuse in Ireland forty years ago, when the then Father John Brady was the notary at an enquiry into allegations of abuse against a paedophile priest. Father Brady took his notes and passed then up the chain of authority and that was his part in the matter. But the matter was so serious, that it now looks as if he was remiss in his duty to ‘do more’ than simply record conversations and interviews.
The Vatican is resisting calls for his resignation, but the latest news says that an auxiliary bishop will be appointed to assist the Cardinal, with automatic right of succession. That looks like a subtle and silent way of easing the Cardinal aside. I think it would have been better for the Cardinal to resign as a symbolic act of sorrow for the failings of the Church in this matter, and for his own smaller role in that failure.
The Church is looking at the issue from its own point of view, and is still practising the habit of self-defense. Having just watched the documentary, I now see the issue through the eyes of the victims in this story, with all the desolation that has dogged their lives since they were abused in their earliest years. The documentary did not attempt to attack or ‘kick’ the Church in any way. It was a fair reporting of events of long ago. The resignation of the Cardinal, if done properly, could be a great act of sorrow on behalf of the Church in Ireland.
The Vatican’s Fundamental Problem: Eddie Molloy
IRELANDThe Association of Catholic Priests
When the white smoke went up and a voice announced “Habemus papam, Cardinalem Josephum – - - ” my heart sank because I knew that the next word would be “Ratzinger”. And so did many other hearts sink.
I had come to know of Cardinal Ratzinger as the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that in 1985 silenced the Franciscan Leonardo Boff. Boff was a leading figure in Liberation Theology which drew on the Gospels to articulate indignation at the plight of poor, disposed people in South America. He was critical of the role of the Catholic hierarchy in that part of the world because of their affiliation to oppressive regimes and he was a trenchant critic of American foreign policy. He continues today in the same vein as a professor in the fields of theology, ethics and philosophy and author of more than 100 books.
What was most disturbing about the CDF’s attempt to silence Boff was not that it took issue with some of his views, including his support for some Communist regimes and elements of Marxism, but the sheer ruthlessness of the procedures and the disregard for anything approaching due process or respect for basic human rights. So when I read that Fr. Seán Fagan had been silenced up to two years ago on foot of an anonymous complaint about him and with the warning that he would be defrocked if the media reported what had happened, I was shocked. According to Justine McCarthy in the Sunday Times (15th April), all available copies of a theology book written by Fr. Fagan have been bought up by his religious order, the Marists, much to their discredit. He is 84 years of age, partially blind and in poor health and he was told he would stand trial if he did not undertake to stop writing.
Cardinal Brady Should Resign
IRELANDSpectator (United Kingdom)
Alex Massie
Thursday, 10th May 2012
Last night, I finally watched last week's BBC This World documentary investigating the latest stage of the child abuse scandal that is destroying the Catholic Church in Ireland and, like Jenny McCartney, suspect it is time for Cardinal Sean Brady, Primate of All-Ireland, to resign his post. I don't suppose Cardinal Brady is a bad man, nor should one suppose that his resignation would draw some manner f line under the whole, sorry, rotten, scandalous affair. But it would be more than just a gesture too. William Oddie, writing in the Catholic Herald, plainly would prefer Brady to remain in office but accepts he "almost certainly" must "bow before the storm".
The BBC programme probably did, as Cardinal Brady complains, overstate the role he played in the Brendan Smyth affair back in the mid-1970s. Brady maintains he was a mere notary - that is, note-taker - when he heard evidence from 14 year old Brendan Boland that Smyth was abusing young boys. Boland even supplied the names and addresses of some of Smyth's other victims. Despite this, none of the parents of any of the five children named by Boland were told of what was happening and Boland himself was asked to sign an oath agreeing that he would keep his testimony secret and speak about it only to "authorised priests".
Brady submitted his reports and that was that. Smyth was, for a spell, subject to a "children's ban" though this did not prevent him from abusing other children. In any case, the ban, ineffective though it had proved, was formally lifted in 1984. The man who made that decision was Bishop McKiernan of Kilmore who was also Father Brady's Bishop at the time. No-one argues that Father Brady had, then or now, primary or even secondary responsibility for thwarting Smyth. Nevertheless he was, at the very least, an accessory to the failure to stop Smyth raping young boys.
May 9 updates
This is no 'witch hunt'...
IRELAND
The Telegraph (United Kingdom)
This is no 'witch hunt': Cardinal Brady has lost his moral authority over the paedophile priest cases
Jenny McCartney
My column calling for Cardinal Sean Brady to resign from his post as Primate of All Ireland has prompted a great deal of discussion, in particular from the distinguished commentator William Oddie in this week’s Catholic Herald, in which he suggests that my words exemplify a mood that “may well be nearer to the phenomenon we call today a 'witch hunt' than to a common understanding based on an equitable understanding of the reality of the situation.”
Since my comprehension of a “witch hunt” is that it is a highly public effort to uncover wrongdoing, but one based on flimsy or negligible evidence, I would argue the opposite: in fact, my view is founded in the facts of the case surrounding the late Fr Brendan Smyth, the notorious paedophile priest, and in what Cardinal Brady has said and argued about it since.
I will not restate the detail of the then Fr Brady’s involvement in the Smyth case, which I set out in the original column. But Mr Oddie – feeling that the Cardinal had been unjustly maligned – asked if anyone had bothered to read the full text of his response to the BBC Two This World programme. I had of course read it closely, and it was this text which disturbed me. It referred to the question of who in the Church at the time had the “authority” to stop Brendan Smyth in his rampant abuse of children – children whose horrifying evidence, incidentally, the 36-year-old Fr Brady fully believed.
The Telegraph (United Kingdom)
This is no 'witch hunt': Cardinal Brady has lost his moral authority over the paedophile priest cases
Jenny McCartney
My column calling for Cardinal Sean Brady to resign from his post as Primate of All Ireland has prompted a great deal of discussion, in particular from the distinguished commentator William Oddie in this week’s Catholic Herald, in which he suggests that my words exemplify a mood that “may well be nearer to the phenomenon we call today a 'witch hunt' than to a common understanding based on an equitable understanding of the reality of the situation.”
Since my comprehension of a “witch hunt” is that it is a highly public effort to uncover wrongdoing, but one based on flimsy or negligible evidence, I would argue the opposite: in fact, my view is founded in the facts of the case surrounding the late Fr Brendan Smyth, the notorious paedophile priest, and in what Cardinal Brady has said and argued about it since.
I will not restate the detail of the then Fr Brady’s involvement in the Smyth case, which I set out in the original column. But Mr Oddie – feeling that the Cardinal had been unjustly maligned – asked if anyone had bothered to read the full text of his response to the BBC Two This World programme. I had of course read it closely, and it was this text which disturbed me. It referred to the question of who in the Church at the time had the “authority” to stop Brendan Smyth in his rampant abuse of children – children whose horrifying evidence, incidentally, the 36-year-old Fr Brady fully believed.
TD rebukes Bishop
NORTHERN IRELAND
Derry Journal
By Catherine McGinty
Published on Tuesday 8 May 2012
Inishowen TD Padraig MacLochlainn has robustly defended party colleague Martin McGuinness after criticism of the Deputy First Minister by Bishop Donal McKeown.
The Auxiliary Bishop of Down and Connor accused Irish politicians of displaying ‘a lack of statesmanship’ regarding Cardinal Sean Brady.
Martin McGuinness said the Vatican should ‘move out of denial mode’ on child sexual abuse. He also called on Cardinal Brady ‘to do the right thing’.
Bishop Donal McKeown said: “It is hard to take criticism of Cardinal Brady from many people who during the Troubles were involved in state bodies, paramilitary bodies or who shared platforms with those organisations, who did huge damage to children and their families.
Derry Journal
By Catherine McGinty
Published on Tuesday 8 May 2012
Inishowen TD Padraig MacLochlainn has robustly defended party colleague Martin McGuinness after criticism of the Deputy First Minister by Bishop Donal McKeown.
The Auxiliary Bishop of Down and Connor accused Irish politicians of displaying ‘a lack of statesmanship’ regarding Cardinal Sean Brady.
Martin McGuinness said the Vatican should ‘move out of denial mode’ on child sexual abuse. He also called on Cardinal Brady ‘to do the right thing’.
Bishop Donal McKeown said: “It is hard to take criticism of Cardinal Brady from many people who during the Troubles were involved in state bodies, paramilitary bodies or who shared platforms with those organisations, who did huge damage to children and their families.
Editorial: Independent Commission needed
IRELAND
Offaly Express
Published on Wednesday 9 May 2012
ARCHBISHOP Diarmuid Martin’s call for an independent international commission of inquiry into the crimes of the paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth is to be welcomed.
Even in a country jaded by commissions, this is one that is needed. Such a body would be free to address in a comprehensive manner the heinous crimes committed by this man, and the consequent issues the Catholic Church has to face in its handling of the whole abuse scandal.
One of the principal questions that has to be addressed is why this man was allowed to continue in this role for years, a role which afforded him the opportunity to be in the company of children.
At this stage only an outside body will be able to get an answer on this, and determine the truth.
Offaly Express
Published on Wednesday 9 May 2012
ARCHBISHOP Diarmuid Martin’s call for an independent international commission of inquiry into the crimes of the paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth is to be welcomed.
Even in a country jaded by commissions, this is one that is needed. Such a body would be free to address in a comprehensive manner the heinous crimes committed by this man, and the consequent issues the Catholic Church has to face in its handling of the whole abuse scandal.
One of the principal questions that has to be addressed is why this man was allowed to continue in this role for years, a role which afforded him the opportunity to be in the company of children.
At this stage only an outside body will be able to get an answer on this, and determine the truth.
Brady, your lame apology simply adds insult to injury unless you quit
IRELAND
Herald
Wednesday May 09 2012
SO, Sean Brady is finally sorry.
That's all very well, but what I want to hear is a resignation, not an apology.
But, despite widespread unease, disgust and anger at the way he handled complaints of abuse against paedophile Brendan Smyth, Cardinal Brady remains in situ.
The cleric clearly has no intention of throwing in the towel and going quietly into retirement -- as anyone with half an ounce of common sense would do.
In fact, Brady's only response to the tidal wave of calls for his resignation has been a belated, anodyne apology to Brendan Boland, one of the victims of the notorious serial paedophile Smyth.
Herald
Wednesday May 09 2012
SO, Sean Brady is finally sorry.
That's all very well, but what I want to hear is a resignation, not an apology.
But, despite widespread unease, disgust and anger at the way he handled complaints of abuse against paedophile Brendan Smyth, Cardinal Brady remains in situ.
The cleric clearly has no intention of throwing in the towel and going quietly into retirement -- as anyone with half an ounce of common sense would do.
In fact, Brady's only response to the tidal wave of calls for his resignation has been a belated, anodyne apology to Brendan Boland, one of the victims of the notorious serial paedophile Smyth.
Catholic primate Sean Brady guilty of cardinal errors
IRELAND
Irish Central
John Spain
Last week the political parties here began their campaigns for the referendum on the European Fiscal Compact, probably the most important vote this generation of Irish people will cast.
Depending on how you see it, the outcome could make or break the Irish economy for decades to come.
It's not only a very important matter but a highly complex one. It deserves all our attention for the next few weeks as we decide whether to vote yes or no.
It should have been dominating the headlines here last week, but it failed to do so. Instead it was pushed to the margins as sex abuse by priests yet again took over the news agenda.
Irish Central
John Spain
Last week the political parties here began their campaigns for the referendum on the European Fiscal Compact, probably the most important vote this generation of Irish people will cast.
Depending on how you see it, the outcome could make or break the Irish economy for decades to come.
It's not only a very important matter but a highly complex one. It deserves all our attention for the next few weeks as we decide whether to vote yes or no.
It should have been dominating the headlines here last week, but it failed to do so. Instead it was pushed to the margins as sex abuse by priests yet again took over the news agenda.
Cardinal sin means he must go
IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph
By Gail Walker
Wednesday, 9 May 2012
Why doesn't he just go? Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Martin McGuinness and, crucially, the people want Cardinal Sean Brady to resign. But His Eminence hangs on. Desperately. Counting angels on the top of the pin. A mere humble note taker, he says he did nothing wrong during the investigation into paedophile priest Father Brendan Smyth.
Actually, he did absolutely nothing (apart from forcing Smyth's victims to keep their testimony silent, of course) and consequently many children were raped, abused and forced to endure the anguish of the damned. The investigating panel must have known this was a possible outcome, but instead it seems the policy was to let Smyth go on his merry way and hope for the best.
Did they inform the police about the alleged abuse? No. Did they inform parents of the victims? No.
Did they warn the congregations of parishes that Smyth was shipped to that a child rapist was in their midst? No.
Irish Independent
By Greg Harkin
Wednesday May 09 2012
A SEX-abuse victim has welcomed a public apology from Cardinal Sean Brady but insisted last night that the cleric should quit his position as the leader of Ireland's Catholics.
Brendan Boland was abused for two years from the age of 12 by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth. In March 1975 he told three priests, including the cardinal -- who was then Fr Brady -- of the abuse. He believed his bravery in coming forward would prevent further cases. But Smyth went on to abuse dozens more victims.
Brendan Boland's devastating testimony in the BBC 'This World' programme led to calls for Dr Brady to resign.
Waterford Today
Wednesday, 9th May 2012
Here we go again. The Roman Catholic Church has gotten itself bogged down in yet another scandal surrounding the issue of child sexual abuse. This time however it is the head of the Church, The Primate of All Ireland Cardinal Brady that is in the firing line. It has emerged that he knew about the actions of perhaps the most notorious of Ireland's paedophiles - they are many to choose from - Fr. Brendan Smyth and effectively he did nothing about it. There have been some, in the Church and outside of it, that have come to his defence. They say that he did as much as he could have done and that effectively there was nothing that he could have done at the time. Also, they point out, he did as much as anyone could and that the whole issue of priests who sexually abused children was handled differently back then and also that there was not as much information on the issue as there is now and that it is not fair to look at things that happened in the past using the standards that we have today. Those arguments might be well and good for some people but just how much water do they really hold? The first point, and perhaps the only point, is, since when did the rape of children become acceptable to those in the church?
BBC News
Politicians have shown a lack of "statesmanship" over the position of Cardinal Sean Brady, according to the Auxiliary Bishop of Down and Connor.
Bishop Donal McKeown said he was disappointed no-one had "dared to suggest that we might lift the focus from that narrow resignation question".
Writing on his Facebook page, he said: "How many of us, who have lived in the NI glasshouse, are in a position to throw stones?
"That sort of comment would have been painfully honest, and helped us to face our very messy past.
Irish Central
By
PATRICK COUNIHAN,
IrishCentral Staff Writer
Published Monday, May 7, 2012
A church leader who has admitted his failure in the Brendan Smyth case has refused to absolve Cardinal Sean Brady from blame and believes the Primate of All-Ireland should quit.
Father Kevin Smith was the abbot who transferred vile paedophile Smyth from parish to parish even after he was accused of child abuse.
The former head of the Norbertine Order, Fr Smith has confessed that he is partly responsible for the hundreds of rapes committed by the late Smyth.
Now he says that Cardinal Brady, leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland, must share some of the blame for failing to report the paedophile priest to the civil authorities.
BBC News
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness has accused the Vatican of "miserably failing" the victims of child sexual abuse.
He said the failings of Rome were a greater issue than the position of Cardinal Sean Brady.
Mr McGuinness told the Assembly that he loved the Catholic church but that Catholics throughoutIreland
The cardinal is accused of failing to act over abuse allegations in 1975.
BBC News
Brendan Boland, one of the victims of paedophile priest Father Brendan Smyth, has said his healing and that of other victims cannot begin while Cardinal Sean Brady remains as Catholic Primate of all-Ireland.
He was responding to a public apology made by Dr Brady.
In it, the cardinal admitted he should have passed on information to parents given to him in 1975 by Mr Boland.
That information warned Fr Smyth was a danger to other children.
In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, Mr Boland thanked the cardinal for the apology and said that one day he hoped to find the strength to accept his offer of a face-to-face meeting.
Farming Life
Published on Monday 7 May 2012
The Vatican has miserably failed the victims of child sex abuse within the Catholic Church, Stormont's Deputy First Minister has claimed.
Amid continuing calls for Irish Primate Cardinal Sean Brady to resign over his involvement in a controversial Church probe that did not stop notorious paedophile priest Brendan Smyth's reign of abuse, Martin McGuinness shifted focus to Rome's attitude to historic clerical sex crimes.
"The issue of Cardinal Brady's position in all of this is important for a lot of people but of more importance to me is the attitude that pertains in the Vatican and I believe that the major failing that exists in the Catholic Church resides in the Vatican," said the Sinn Fein politician.
Mr McGuinness hit out at how Rome had approached previous inquiries into abuse scandals and warned the Catholic authorities that if they failed to co-operate with a forthcoming investigation into institutional abuse in Northern Ireland they would be compelled to do so.
Irish Independent
By Greg Harkin
Tuesday May 08 2012
CARDINAL Sean Brady last night admitted he was wrong when he failed to tell parents that their children were being abused by Fr Brendan Smyth.
The leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland also apologised to a victim of the notorious paedophile priest.
Brendan Boland was among those targeted by the predatory sex attacker in 1975.
Dr Brady also insisted he would not resign despite growing calls for him to do so, many from within the church.
kathweb
Kardinal Brady wegen seiner Mitwirkung als Protokollant bei Ermittlungen gegen einen später verurteilten pädophilen Priester weiter in Bedrängnis
08.05.2012
Dublin, 08.05.2012 (KAP) Der irische Kardinal Sean Brady hat Fehler im Umgang mit Missbrauchsfällen in den 1970er Jahren eingeräumt. "Die Eltern aller Opfer hätten informiert werden müssen", sagte Brady in einem Interview des öffentlich-rechtlichen Senders RTE am Montagabend: "Ich bedauere es sehr, dass sie es nicht wurden; wären sie jetzt in der gleichen Situation, würde ich natürlich darauf bestehen, dass sie informiert werden." Er sprach zugleich eine Entschuldigung gegenüber dem Missbrauchsopfer Brendan Boland aus. Er wolle ihn "bei der frühesten Gelegenheit" persönlich um Verzeihung bitten, so der Kardinal.
taz (Deutschland)
DUBLIN taz | Wenn er im Fernsehen auftritt, wirkt er unsympathisch und arrogant. Das ist Seán Brady auch. Er ist Kardinal und höchster Würdenträger der katholischen Kirche Irlands. Forderungen nach seinem Rücktritt wischt er lässig vom Tisch. Dabei hätte er allen Grund, sein Amt zur Verfügung zu stellen.
Die BBC hat jetzt aufgedeckt, dass Brady im Jahr 1975, als er noch einfacher Pfarrer war, von dem damals 14-jährigen Brendan Boland über die Machenschaften des pädokriminellen Pfarrers Brendan Smyth informiert worden war. Boland gab Brady die Namen von fünf weiteren Jugendlichen, die ebenfalls von Smyth vergewaltigt worden waren.
IRELAND
The Irish Times
PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent, and MARIE O'HALLORAN
MORE THAN 1,000 Catholic laity, priests and nuns called for dialogue in the Irish church at a day-long conference in Dublin yesterday.
Titled “Toward an Assembly of the Catholic Church”, the conference agreed such dialogue should “work towards establishing appropriate structures that would reflect the participation of all the baptised”.
It “should take place at parish, diocesan and national levels” and “address all issues facing our people at this time of crisis”.
The conference agreed on the need to recapture “as a matter of urgency” the reforming vision of the Second Vatican Council and called on all who were “concerned with the future of our church, including our church leaders, to participate in this dialogue.”
Belfast Telegraph
By Mark Hilliard
Tuesday, 8 May 2012
Silencing priests is not an appropriate method of ending disagreements within the church, the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) said yesterday.
More than 1,000 people attended a meeting to discuss how to solve the church "crisis" that includes continuing abuse scandals and declining Mass attendance.
Fr Brendan Hoban of the ACP told the gathering at Dublin's Regency Hotel that clamping down on "wayward" opinions was not the way to deal with issues.
He was referring to the recent censoring of a number of priests including Fr Brian D'Arcy and Fr Tony Flannery who voiced opinions unpopular with the hierarchy.
Catholic Herald (United Kingdom)
Cardinal Brady’s situation is now irretrievable, and he would be wise, therefore, to retire; but the storm beating down on him is wholly undeserved
By William Oddie
I begin by quoting an article by Jenny McCartney in this week’s Sunday Telegraph. Firstly, because she is normally a fair-minded and well-informed commentator; secondly because she sums up well enough what seems to be the general tenor of the obloquy now raining down on the head of Cardinal Seán Brady. Jenny McCartney puts it like this: “It has become a painfully self-evident truth – surely, even to the silent onlookers at the Vatican – that the longer Cardinal Seán Brady stays in place as Primate of All Ireland, the greater the damage inflicted on the reputation of the Catholic Church in Ireland and beyond.”
I wonder, I really do wonder, if anyone has really thought through the implications of all this. What we have here, it seems to me, may well be nearer to the phenomenon we call today a “witch hunt” than to a common understanding based on an equitable understanding of the reality of the situation. The mass psychology of these affairs is rarely based on reason or justice; and such, I suggest, is the case here.
It may well be that Cardinal Brady, who is 72, should take early retirement, given the wholly intractable nature of the situation that has now arisen. It coud be that this is the only way forward, since fighting on is likely only to exacerbate the situation: he cannot expect to be listened to now, however reasonable his self-defence may be. Fr Vincent Twomey, the eminent retired professor of moral theology at Maynooth, says with some justice: “There is a sense of a Greek tragedy in all of this. In the Greek tragedy, people do things intending to do the good thing but instead some awful, dreadful things happen as a result of their actions and they have to pay for it… I think for the good of the Church, I’m afraid I am of the opinion that he should resign….”
IRELAND
The Guardian (United Kingdom
Henry McDonald in Dublin
guardian.co.uk, Monday 7 May 2012
The embattled leader of Ireland's Catholics, Cardinal Sean Brady, has issued a public apology to a man who revealed that he failed to report to police and parents a list of children who were being abused by a notorious paedophile priest.
But one victim has denounced the move, saying it was part of a survival strategy by Brady and the Irish Catholic hierarchy.
Andrew Madden, an abuse victim who detailed his ordeal at the hands of a north Dublin priest in his book Altar Boy, said Brady's apology to Brendan Boland should not be used to help keep the cardinal in his position.
Madden said: "Ultimately it's up to Brendan Boland to decide what he thinks of the apology, but it looks like a very self-serving one now that he is in so much trouble.
Irish Examiner
By Fergus Finlay
Tuesday, May 08, 2012
I’VE been asked a lot during the last week whether I think Cardinal Brady should resign.
My instinctive answer has been yes, because I really don’t believe any renewal of the Church’s moral authority in Ireland is possible under his leadership.
Moral authority is a force for good. Not when it is exercised through power and oppressiveness, but when it is based on compassion and some degree of understanding. A society in transition, that is searching for values, needs to be able to turn to authority figures that have earned respect.
It’s that type and level of moral authority that needs to be renewed, and that is beyond the capacity of Cardinal Brady to deliver. That’s why, any time I’ve been asked, I have said he should go.
IRELAND
The Irish Times
KITTY HOLLAND and PATSY McGARRY
THE CATHOLIC primate, Cardinal Seán Brady, has said parents of children he knew in 1975 had been abused by Fr Brendan Smyth should have been told.
“I regret very much that they weren’t, and obviously if we were in the same situation now we would insist they be informed,” he said yesterday.
Were it now, he would make it “absolutely certain” that parents were informed.
“It would be a matter of insisting that somebody should do it because the parents have a right to know, and obviously the fact that they weren’t informed was a great source of pain and further traumatisation to these children.”
BBC News
Cardinal Sean Brady has said he wants to personally apologise to a man who was abused as a 14-year-old boy by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.
Cardinal Brady has come under pressure after a BBC documentary.
It accused him of failing to act on abuse allegations when he was a young priest.
He said he had no intention of stepping aside but hoped an assistant - with succession rights - would be quickly appointed to his archdiocese.
TIME - Global Spin
By William Lee Adams | @willyleeadams | May 7, 2012
During the four decades that pedophile priest Brendan Smyth abused children, he frequently took them on driving excursions acrossIreland
Smyth , Ireland
RTE nEWS
Cardinal Seán Brady has publicly apologised to Brendan Boland, a survivor of paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth.
Seán Brady has no intention of stepping aside
Speaking at Lough Derg following a penitential pilgrimage in advance of next month's Eucharistic Congress, Dr Brady also said he had no intention of stepping aside, despite continuing calls for his resignation.
He said there had also been "many many calls from people who want me to stay on."
But he said he hoped a coadjutor - with succession rights - would be appointed to his archdiocese as soon as possible.
Vatican Insider
Diarmuid Martin has called for an independent commission to investigate the case of Father Brendan Smyth who abused more than 100 children over 40 years. Top politicians have called for Cardinal Brady’s resignation because of his involvement in this case
Gerard O'Connell
Rome
As the dramatic crisis in the Irish Catholic Church deepened with calls for Cardinal Brady’s resignation over his role in an inquiry into the abuse of children by the notorious pedophile priest - Fr Brendan Smyth, the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin has called for the setting up of “an independent commission of investigation” into the abuse of children by that priest as the best way to arrive at the whole truth.
Archbishop Martin made his proposal when responding to questions from journalists on the crisis after celebrating Mass at St. Francis Xavier church in Dublin, Sunday, May 6. Hours later, a spokesman for Cardinal Brady said he “welcomed and supported” the proposal.
“I really believe that we need an independent Commission of investigation into the activities of Brendan Smyth and how he was allowed to abuse for so many years,” Archbishop Martin stated.
Irish Independent
By Greg Harkin
Monday May 07 2012
THE abbot who moved paedophile priest Brendan Smyth from diocese to diocese but failed to prevent him abusing more children has said Cardinal Sean Brady must share some of the blame.
Father Kevin Smith is, by his own admission, partly responsible for the hundreds of crimes of child rape and abuse committed by Smyth.
But the former head of the Norbertine Order was also spreading the blame at the weekend.
Now 81 and forced out of his position as head of the order to which Smyth belonged, he called for Dr Brady to resign.
IRELAND
The Irish Times
PATSY McGARRY and GERRY MORIARTY
CATHOLIC PRIMATE Cardinal Seán Brady has welcomed yesterday’s call for an independent inquiry into Fr Brendan Smyth’s abuse of children in Ireland and elsewhere over a 40-year period.
A spokesman for the cardinal said last night that he “welcomed and supported” the proposal made by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin.
Speaking after Mass at St Francis Xavier Church on Dublin’s Gardiner Street, Dr Martin said: “We’re getting all these bits and pieces of information about a horrible situation, what Brendan Smyth did to children.”
He believed “that until all of this story in its entirety comes out, we are not doing justice to those who were abused and we’re not really getting at the truth”.
Belfast Telegraph
By Alf McCreary
Monday, 7 May 2012
One of the saddest sights this week has been watching Cardinal Sean Brady trying to defend the indefensible. He is a good man caught up in a public struggle for the soul of the Irish Catholic Church, and he is now well out of his depth.
Two years ago when the story broke about his involvement in a secret meeting with a young victim of the paedophile Brendan Smyth, I was one of the few commentators to suggest publicly that Cardinal Brady should resign.
Even then it was obvious to me that the game was up, and afterwards a number of prominent people told me privately that they agreed with my view.
However, Cardinal Brady chose to struggle on, in an attempt to spearhead reforms as a “wounded healer”. He has tried to do so with dignity and courage, and his many friends inside and outside the Catholic Church wince for this decent human being who became the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time.
IRELAND
The Irish Times
PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent
IT WAS June 7th, 2001, at the cathedral in Cavan town and the Catholic primate Archbishop (as he still was) Seán Brady was in jovial mood. At a Mass marking the golden jubilee of the ordination of his old boss Bishop Francis McKiernan, who retired in 1998, he began a warm tribute by saying he was “tempted to offer the prayer of the man who fell into the vat of stout in Guinness’s brewery. He prayed, ‘Lord give me a mouth worthy of this glorious opportunity’.”
Archbishop Brady recalled that it was “some 49 years since I first met the then Fr McKiernan. He was in St Patrick’s College, [Cavan] for the second time, I, for the first – he as teacher, I as student”. As Fr Brady, he returned to teach at St Patrick’s in 1967 and was there until 1980. During that time he was secretary to Bishop McKiernan, based too in Cavan town. In 1975, Fr Brady conducted the two inquiries which led to faculties to minister in Kilmore diocese being withdrawn from child abuser Brendan Smyth.
But apart from the teacher-pupil, bishop-secretary relationship he had with Bishop McKiernan, in June 2001 Archbishop Brady had another reason to be grateful to his old mentor. Bishop McKiernan had kept his name out of the loop when the sky fell in following the 1994 jailing of Fr Brendan Smyth in Belfast.
IRELAND
The Journal
THE ARCHBISHOP OF Dublin has called for an independent commission to investigate the abuse of children by Fr Brendan Smyth.
Diarmuid Martin said only a full inquiry would reveal the “full story” of Fr Smyth’s crimes, and how he was allowed to continue abusing for so long.
He said the abuse was of “such a dimension” – taking place in the Republic, Northern Ireland and the US – that only an international investigation would be sufficient.
Speaking on RTÉ’s This Week, Martin said he was calling for:
An independent commission of investigation into the activities of Brendan Smyth, as to how he was allowed to abuse for so many years. A commission that would look north and south, Church and State.
RTE News
The Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, has called for an independent international commission of inquiry into the crimes of Fr Brendan Smyth, the late paedophile priest.
Dr Martin said such an inquiry was owed to victims and that it would be in the public interest that the full story, and not bits and pieces, should come out.
Meanwhile, Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise Colm O'Reilly has described as "bizarre" the interview methods used by Cardinal Seán Brady during a Church inquiry into clerical child sexual abuse in the 1970s.
However, he said he felt Cardinal Brady should not stand aside as Catholic Primate of Ireland as he believed the then Fr Brady acted conscientiously.
Speaking on RTÉ's This Week, Bishop O'Reilly also said he did not know why there is a difficulty with Cardinal Brady making a public apology to Brendan Boland, who was abused by Fr Smyth.
Irish Examiner
Sunday, May 06, 2012
Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has called for an independent investigation into past allegations of clerical sex abuse.
As Archbishop Martin spoke out against the past failings of the Church, another bishop defended Cardinal Sean Brady, whose involvement in a secret 1975 probe into allegations of abuse has come under fire.
Archbishop Martin said a commission should be set up to examine all accusations against paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.
IRELAND
The Independent (United Kingdom
Lyndsey Telford
Sunday 06 May 2012
One of the highest ranking members of the Catholic Church in Ireland has called for an independent investigation into past allegations of clerical sex abuse.
As Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin spoke out against the past failings of the Church, another bishop defended Cardinal Sean Brady, whose involvement in a secret 1975 probe into allegations of abuse has come under fire.
Archbishop Martin said a commission should be set up to examine all accusations against paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.
"I know it's not fashionable to talk about commissions, but I believe an independent commission to investigate the activities of Brendan Smyth, as to how he was allowed to abuse for so many years - north and south, church and state," Archbishop Martin told RTE.
Irish Central
By
CATHY HAYES,
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer
Published Sunday, May 6, 2012,
Young and old alike were signing a national petition launched on Friday by concerned local people in Donegal calling on Cardinal Sean Brady to resign from his post as Primate of All Ireland.
The online version of the petition has already been by people within Ireland, but also in England, Spain and the United States. Aside from individual concerns, no specific organization or group was behind the initiative, which comes at a time of social and spiritual uncertainty in the county and the country.
Entitled the "Peoples' Petition," the campaign was launched in the town of Falcarragh in the western part of the county, an area where multiple instances of child sex abuse by priests has taken place over the years, especially at the hands of convicted pedophile and former priest Eugene Green, found to have abused more than 26 children.
Sean Hillen one of the leaders behind the initiative, explained the reason for what he termed the "Peoples’ Petition."
BBC News
The Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, has called for an independent international commission of inquiry into the crimes of paedophile priest, the late Fr Brendan Smyth.
Dr Diarmuid Martin said Smyth's victims were owed such an inquiry.
It would be in the public interest that the full story came out, not bits and pieces, he told RTE Radio 1 on Sunday.
His comments follow a week when the Irish Primate came under pressure over his role in a 1975 inquiry into Smyth.
UTV
Published Sunday, 06 May 2012
The Archbishop of Dublin is calling for a full independent inquiry into the activities of paedophile priest Father Brendan Smyth.
It comes in the wake of this week's BBC documentary, centred on All-Ireland primate Cardinal Sean Brady's role in the church's initial investigation in 1975.
The programme included claims that then Fr Brady failed to adequately protect children against the notorious child molester.
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin says a full commission of investigation should take place, covering both Northern Ireland and the Republic.
Huffington Post
One of the highest ranking members of the Catholic Church in Ireland has called for an independent investigation into past allegations of clerical sex abuse.
As Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin spoke out against the past failings of the Church, another bishop defended Cardinal Sean Brady, whose involvement in a secret 1975 probe into allegations of abuse has come under fire.
Archbishop Martin said a commission should be set up to examine all accusations against paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.
"I know it's not fashionable to talk about commissions, but I believe an independent commission to investigate the activities of Brendan Smyth, as to how he was allowed to abuse for so many years - north and south, church and state," Archbishop Martin told RTE, Ireland's national broadcaster.
IRELAND
The Irish Times
Patsy McGarry Religious Affairs Correspondent
An independent commission of investigation ought to be set up to inquire into the abuse of children by Fr Brendan Smyth, the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has said. This was necessary as “the Brendan Smyth story is of such a dimension,” he said earlier today.
Where Cardinal Brady was concerned he said “I’ve never called for anybody’s resignation, I’ve never done that. Everybody has to make their own decisions.”
Asked about the censuring of Irish priests by the Vatican he believed the best way to deal with such cases was to address them first in Ireland. “I think the Theological Commission of the Irish bishops has not been carrying out its function as in other countries where this dialogue would take place as a first stage and then be resolved without it necessarily being dealt with from Rome directly,” he said. He “would have preferred that these matters be dealt with in a dialogue…in a robust dialogue within the Irish church.”
Limerick Post
by Rebekah Commane
Monday, 30 April 2012
SURVIVORS of institutional abuse are calling for the reopening of The Redress Board and for more transparency on plans for a €110 million trust fund. The Right of Place/Second Chance Group believes that many people were not ready to come forward to the Board and apply for compensation while it was open, but they may now want to do so. In its recently published annual report, the group also called on the government to publish plans for the trust fund contributed to by 18 religious congregations. Right of Place/Second Chance Outreach Co-ordinator for HSE West, Val Groarke, said the group is worried that the government are dragging their feet in coming up with criteria for recipients of the fund.
He urged the government to supplement the fund on an annual basis to allow survivors who have not yet come forward, to access it.
“I believe that there are a lot of people out there who didn’t get the redress,” Mr. Groarke told the Limerick Post.
Irish Independent
Sunday May 06 2012
CONTEMPT for authority has become so ubiquitous these days that it's the self-proclaimed individualists who all end up thinking and sounding alike, and those who, by remaining faithful to tradition, are actually the last remaining non-conformists.
All the same, the fact remains. Ours is an age which worships mavericks. Free thinking and iconoclasm are held up as ideals. Duty and obedience are scorned.
It's Archbishop Sean Brady's misfortune to be caught in the pincer movement between those two forces and to find himself radically at odds with his society as a result. He is clearly a man who needs the comfort and solidarity that comes from subsuming one's identity into a greater whole; who is temperamentally suited to belonging. Many priests are.
Irish Independent
By DON LAVERY
Sunday May 06 2012
Vatican likely to appoint coadjutor bishop for top churchman under fire over documentary
CARDINAL Sean Brady -- under increasing pressure over his failure as a priest to report child rape allegations to civil authorities -- will effectively be replaced by a coadjutor bishop within months when Rome finally acts to deal with the latest fallout from the activities of notorious paedophile Fr Brendan Smyth.
Despite a week of unrelenting demands for Dr Brady to resign from Smyth's victims, child abuse groups, politicians, and some clergy, the indications were yesterday that the cardinal has no intention of resigning, particularly as he will play a role in the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin next month.
However, with just two years to go to his retirement age of 75, the Vatican, which will also consider reports from the Papal Nuncio's office, is to appoint a coadjutor bishop this year who will be a successor to the cardinal.
Irish Independent
Thursday May 03 2012
Almost two decades after playing a major role in the collapse of the 1993-4 Fianna Fail/Labour coalition, the crimes of paedophile priest Brendan Smyth continue to cast a long shadow over Irish life.
Now, not for the first time, Cardinal Sean Brady, the leader of Ireland's Catholics, finds himself forced to explain his role in the Church's investigation into Fr Smyth's crimes.
In 1975, the then Fr Sean Brady was called upon to assist in the investigation of allegations of sexual abuse made by several children against Fr Smyth. His role in the investigation was a relatively junior one. He first acted as a notetaker in the interview of one of Fr Smyth's victims and subsequently interviewed a second child who had been identified as a victim of Fr Smyth in the first interview.
Irish Independent
Sunday May 06 2012
Senior church figures in the Vatican have come, once again, to the defence of the now intensely beleaguered Cardinal Sean Brady.
In 1975 Fr Sean Brady, a 36-year-old canon lawyer, was appointed to be one of three churchmen conducting an inquiry into the sexual molestation of children by the Norbertine priest Brendan Smyth. Sean Brady says now, as he said after the publication of the Murphy report in 2009, that he had believed the children's allegations. And that he presumed that when he passed his report to his superiors, he believed in good faith that it would be followed up to protect those children and others. At the time, after one session in company with the other religious lawyers, and one where he questioned at least one child alone, he swore them to secrecy about their abuse. He did nothing further.
Those are the bones of the actions which the Vatican was defending last week, saying he "acted correctly". And that is the core of the problem. He did act "correctly" according to canon law. He did not act compassionately; he did not act responsibly; he did not act justly.
Irish Independent
Colum Kenny: 'You never got to like it?' The answer to that sinister, suspicious, insinuating, abusive question remains 'No'
By Colum Kenny
Sunday May 06 2012
'You never got to like it?" That was one of the remarkable questions put to Brendan Boland when he was interrogated by priests in 1975 after reporting to the Catholic Church his sexual abuse at the hands of Fr Brendan Smyth.
"You never got to like it?" The question itself is abusive. It serves no obvious good purpose. I sought an explanation for it last week, but was told only that the entire exercise was intended "to gather evidence against the criminal priest".
A spokesperson for Cardinal Sean Brady, who was present as a priest at that investigation in 1975, told me that Brady "did not construct those questions or ask those questions". But he was there and he signed off on them (as plain "John" and not "Sean" Brady).
"You never got to like it?" Being abused, that is. The answer that Boland gave to the three priests was an absolute "No".
Irish Independent
A new reference book on the Archdiocese of Dublin which lists every priest who served there up to 2011 leaves out some important names.
The 400-page book, The Archbishops, Bishops and Priests who served in the Archdiocese of Dublin 1900-2011, gives the names and CVs of the nearly 2,000 priests who have served since 1900 -- except those guilty of sex abuse, who have been airbrushed from history.
The book is written by Fr J Anthony Gaughan, author, historian, former UCD chaplain and retired parish priest in Blackrock, Co Dublin. It includes a foreword by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, praising the work as giving due recognition to the ordinary priests who would not otherwise be recorded in the annals of history.
To date, the Dublin Archdiocese has paid out over €13.5m in compensation to victims of abuse, well over 500 victims have been identified, at least eight priests have faced criminal cases and civil actions have been brought against 35 priests, all of whom were part of the archdiocese.
RTE News
It has emerged that the Diocese of Kilmore allowed paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth to return to hearing confession and saying Mass in public in 1984.
This came nine years after a 1975 inquiry led to him being banned from doing so. Cardinal Sean Brady, then a priest, participated in that inquiry.
According to a statement issued to RTÉ News this evening by the current Bishop of the diocese, Dr Leo O'Reilly, in 1984 Smyth asked the then Bishop, the late Dr Francis MacKiernan, to lift the ban.
Following consultations with the then Abbott of Smyth's monastery, Bishop MacKiernan acceded to Smyth's request.
Herald
By Fiona Dillon
Saturday May 05 2012
THE Vatican is expected to quickly appoint a Bishop to assist Cardinal Sean Brady as he battles calls for him to resign as Primate of All Ireland.
Pressure is being ratcheted up on him to step down over his handling of the allegations against paedophile priest Brendan Smyth in 1975.
However, Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore has vehemently denied that some politicians were trying to hound Cardinal Brady out of office.
He said it was the responsibility of the Church and not the Government to decide who remains in or leaves a position.
IRELAND
The Irish Sun
By AOIFE FINNERAN
PRESSURE on embattled Cardinal Sean Brady to resign increased after a victim of paedophile Fr Brendan Smyth claimed he should face a criminal investigation.
US lawyer Helen McGonigle, who was abused by Smyth in the Sixties in Rhode Island, said Cardinal Brady’s failure to protect victims was “unforgivable”.
She blasted the cleric for his “arrogance and insensitivity” after it emerged that he did not tell authorities about at least five children who were victims of Smyth.
Brady was a priest in 1975 when he took part in a church inquiry into allegations by Brendan Boland, then 14, that he had been abused by Smyth.
Irish Examiner
By Claire O’Sullivan
Saturday, May 05, 2012
An American lawyer who was abused by Fr Brendan Smyth has said that the Vatican has "blood on its hands" for its failure to inform Irish Church authorities that it had censured Smyth for abuse in the United States years before the 1975 secret inquiry.
Helen McGonigle has learnt that the Vatican’s Congregation for the Religious issued a decree that Smyth wasn’t allowed to take Confession and was to be supervised following abuse complaints made in the late 60s.
Yet, in 1975 the Bishop of Kilmore and the Abbot of Killnacrott agreed a similar censure of Smyth — seemingly oblivious that a similar reprimand had already been handed down.
"Why didn’t the bishop or the abbot inform the Papal Nuncio of this second censure? Why weren’t they informed by the Vatican of the original censure? It is very clear that the 1968 censure was not enforced. What does all of this say about the organisation that is the Catholic Church," Ms McGonigle asked.
Belfast Telegraph
Cardinal Sean Brady offer to step down in 2010 ‘was rejected by Vatican’
By Greg Harkin
Saturday, 5 May 2012
Cardinal Sean Brady was willing to resign over the Brendan Smyth affair two years ago but the Vatican refused because it had “no idea” who to replace him with, sources indicate.
The cardinal was in meetings with advisers on Thursday amid growing calls for him to stand down over his handling of child rape allegations against paedophile priest Smyth in 1975.
It has been learned Dr Brady was willing to step down, but dithering by the Vatican delayed the selection of a successor.
Asked if he had indicated his willingness to resign to the Pope two years ago, a Catholic Communications Office spokesman would neither confirm nor deny the claim, which was given currency yesterday by ‘celebrity’ priest Father Brian D'Arcy.
Belfast Telegraph
As Cardinal Sean Brady turns his back on calls to quit, pressure mounts on police to get involved
By Liam Clarke
Saturday, 5 May 2012
Pressure is growing on the PSNI to interview Cardinal Sean Brady over the most recent claims in the child sex abuse scandal.
The police didn’t act two years ago when the revelations that Dr Brady was present at the interview of two victims of paedophile priest Brendan Smyth first emerged.
One of the young victims, Brendan Boland, gave the names and addresses of several other children he knew were being abused by Smyth.
Despite this evidence nothing was done to warn the children’s parents or inform the police, and Smyth went on to abuse dozens more children over subsequent decades until he was finally brought to justice in the 1990s, dying in prison in 1997.
Belfast Telegraph
By Liam Clarke
Saturday, 5 May 2012
An auxiliary bishop is to be appointed by the Vatican to work beside Cardinal Sean Brady as part of a carefully choreographed exit strategy for the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland.
The coadjutor bishop would be a senior Church figure who would act as the cardinal’s understudy in his role as Archbishop of Armagh, before eventually inheriting the role after a respectable amount of time had elapsed.
The furore over Cardinal Brady’s handling of child sex abuse allegations when he was a priest in the 1970s, which re-ignited this week, has taken a heavy toll on the Church leader.
Irish Independent
By Fionnan Sheahan and Lise Hand
Saturday May 05 2012
Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore last night denied politicians were trying to hound Cardinal Sean Brady out of office in the wake of revelations of his failure to report child rape allegations against the notorious paedophile Fr Brendan Smyth.
Labour Party ministers continued to pile pressure on Dr Brady to resign yesterday -- in contrast to the approach of their Fine Gael colleagues.
Although government sources insist there is no tension between the parties, Labour has been far more vocal about the cardinal's position than their coalition partners.
Social Welfare Minister Joan Burton added to calls for him to consider his position.
Irish Independent
By Greg Harkin
Saturday May 05 2012
CARDINAL Sean Brady was backed by his senior advisers when he offered to resign more than two years ago, the Irish Independent has learned.
The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland informed the Vatican of his "willingness to stand aside" as one of a range of possible options when his role in the Brendan Smyth controversy became public in 2010.
And his senior advisers backed the move -- expressing concern that the Smyth controversy would damage the church.
The cardinal is now planning an alternative exit strategy.
Cardinal Brady had asked the Pope for 'Episcopal help' or an auxiliary bishop two years ago when the controversy first erupted, but the bishop was not appointed.
Irish Independent
By Allison Bray
Saturday May 05 2012
NOTORIOUS paedophile priest Brendan Smyth "candidly" admitted to raping young children like a serial killer confessing to a string of murders.
That is one of the chilling memories of the whistleblower whose confrontation with the priest led to his conviction.
Jude Whyte (55), a social work lecturer, said a former adult student told him about the sexual abuse of his children at the hands of the disgraced priest in 1994.
Mr Whyte, who now teaches at the Department of Health and Social Care atBelfast Metropolitan College
IRELAND
The Irish Times
PATSY McGARRY
IT BEGGARS belief that, following what was discovered about Fr Brendan Smyth’s abuse of children at two 1975 church inquiries, the bishop of Kilmore diocese, Francis McKiernan, would have restored to the priest his right to hear Confession and say Mass publicly there.
Those faculties were removed following the inquiry conducted by then Fr Seán Brady, Fr Francis Donnelly and Fr Oliver McShane with 14-year-old Brendan Boland in Dundalk on March 29th, 1975. He told them of his abuse and that of five other young people by Smyth.
On April 4th, 1975, Fr Brady interviewed a 15-year-old boy at the parochial house in Ballyjamesduff, Co Cavan, concerning his abuse by Smyth. He was one of five young people whose names and addresses had been given by Brendan Boland at that inquiry in Dundalk. Four of those were never spoken to by any priest, nor were their parents. Nor were the parents of the 15-year-old boy interviewed by Fr Brady in Ballyjamesduff.
We now know, following last Tuesday’s BBC This World documentary, that Smyth continued to abuse another boy, who was on the list supplied by Boland to the priests, until 1976, that boy’s sister until 1982 and four cousins of theirs, members of one family inBelfast
IRELAND
The Irish Times
DEAGLAN de BRÉADÚN, TOM SHIEL, MARTIN WALL and PAMELA DUNCAN
TÁNAISTE EAMON Gilmore said Government Ministers were not seeking to drive Cardinal Seán Brady out of office.
“It’s not the case,” he told reporters in Dublin yesterday. “There is a separation in this country between church and State. It is not the Government’s responsibility to decide who are bishops or who should remain as bishops, or archbishops or cardinals – that’s entirely a matter for the church.
“What is the Government’s business is to ensure that there is adequate protection provided for in this State for children.
“We have seen appalling episodes of the abuse and rape of children in this country by people who have responsibility over them, including clergy people and, in effect, a cover-up of that in many respects by church authorities.
IRELAND
The Irish Times
KEVIN CULLEN
ANALYSIS: AS HE sits in Ara Coeli in Armagh, Cardinal Seán Brady has begun to resemble someone who was under siege in a similarly fine house a decade ago: Cardinal Bernard Law, the archbishop of Boston who became the first American bishop to resign over a sex abuse scandal involving priests under his supervision.
The drumbeat for Cardinal Brady’s resignation, growing louder each day, is reminiscent of the one that eventually hounded Cardinal Law out of Boston 10 years ago.
There are key differences in their cases: Cardinal Law was under fire for direct actions he took as a bishop, while Cardinal Brady is being pressured for his inaction as a priest some 35 years ago. But the arc of the criticism is remarkably similar.
Like Cardinal Brady, Cardinal Law was initially firmly resolute in his refusal to step down, saying his resignation would solve nothing. But the drumbeat got louder and more persistent.
Digital Spy
By Andrew Laughlin
Catholic primate Séan Brady has today accused the BBC of making "seriously misleading and untrue" allegations against him in a documentary.
Aired on BBC Northern Ireland last night (May 1), This World documentary The Shame of the Catholic Church focused on the Church's handing of clerical sex abuse allegations in the 1970s.
Cardinal Brady has resisted calls for him to resign as the primate of all-Ireland after This World claimed that he had names and addresses of those being abused by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth, but had not passed the details on to police or parents.
Dr Brady said that the BBC's allegations against him were "seriously misleading and untrue". He also said that the documentary-makers had set out to "deliberately exaggerate and misrepresent" his role in the scandal.
Irish Examiner
Friday, May 04, 2012
Taoiseach Enda Kenny is again refusing to be drawn on whether the Primate of All Ireland Cardinal Seán Brady should resign over his handling of abuse allegations against Father Brendan Smyth in the 1970s.
The Tánaiste, a number of ministers and other senior political figures on both sides of the border have all urged Cardinal Brady to consider his position.
Social Protection Minister Joan Burton is the latest member of the Government to call on the Cardinal to consider his position over his failure to inform civil authorities about the abuse allegations against Fr Smyth.
However Mr Kenny today reiterated his position that given his role as the head of Government, it is not for him to make such a call.
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)
Head of Irish Church has 'lost his moral credibility' and must resign over failure to warn parents about paedophile, say fellow priests
Pressure is building on the head of Ireland's Catholic Church to resign over accusations he failed to warn parents their children were being sexually abused.
A BBC documentary broadcast this week said Cardinal Sean Brady was given, in 1975, the names and addresses of children being abused by paedophile Brendan Smyth during a Church investigation but had failed to act to ensure their safety.
'Considering the damage done by that awful man Brendan Smyth, considering the repercussions, one has to say that unfortunately the Cardinal has lost his moral credibility,' Father Vincent Twomey told national broadcaster RTE.
Irish Examiner
Friday, May 04, 2012
Speculation is growing that the Vatican may appoint a Bishop to assist Cardinal Sean Brady who is under growing pressure to stand aside over his role in the Fr Brendan Smyth affair.
The Catholic Press Office today rejected a report today that the Cardinal offered to step down two years ago.
However the office says that Cardinal Brady did request Episcopal support in 2010 and that request has now been reactivated.
Michael Kelly is deputy editor of the Irish Catholic:
"I think this current controversy, and the fall out from it, will make it very very clear to Rome that they do need to act swiftly and act decisively, and appoint a coagular archbishop.", he said.
Catholic News Agency
Armagh, Ireland, May 3, 2012 / 02:29 am (CNA).- Cardinal Sean B. Brady of Armagh, Ireland has denounced a BBC documentary on clerical abuse, saying he does not deserve blame for the results of a decades-old investigation in which he played a subordinate role.
“In the course of the program a number of claims were made which overstate and seriously misrepresent my role in a Church inquiry in 1975,” said Cardinal Brady, in response to a May 1 installment of “This World” entitled “The Shame of the Catholic Church.”
Cardinal Brady, who was not ordained as a bishop until 1995, issued a statement offering several clarifications about his role in the investigation of Norbertine priest Father Brendan Smyth, described in the BBC program.
Parts of the documentary, he said, gave viewers the impression “that because of the office I hold in the Church today I somehow had the power to stop Brendan Smyth in 1975.” But Cardinal Brady, who was not yet a bishop, had “absolutely no authority” over him.
IRELAND
The Journal
[with poll]
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH’S top official in Ireland Cardinal Seán Brady is coming under increasing pressure to resign his position over allegations relating to the sexual abuse of children by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.
Survivors of clerical abuse have not been satisfied with the defence used by Brady that he had no power to stop Smyth back in 1975. The Cardinal also claims his role in the secret inquiry has been misrepresented and exaggerated.
Chief executive of Barnardos Fergus Finlay, who yesterday revealed he was abused as a child, has called on Brady to resign, stating he cannot offer solace to survivors. Meanwhile, the Vatican’s chief prosecutor Monsignor Charles Scicluna has said that the Irish church needs Cardinal Brady as he has “shown determination in promoting the protection of children”. He also argued that Ireland needed leaders who have “learned the hard way”.
TV3
Cardinal Sean Brady is believed to have held meetings with his advisors last night, as pressure grows for his resignation.
Groups representing abuse survivors and a number of senior political figures have urged Cardinal Brady to consider his position, while the Taoiseach has said he should reflect on the allegations contained in a BBC documentary this week.
It claimed that the Cardinal knew of children at risk of abuse by paedophile priest Fr. Brendan Smyth in the 1970's, but failed to pass on the information.
National Secular Society
Posted: Fri, 04 May 2012
The National Secular Society has called on the Northern Ireland Justice Minister to launch an investigation into child abuse in the Catholic Church.
The NSS wrote to Justice Minister David Ford following a serious allegation made in the BBC's This World programme that a church inquiry in 1975 involving Brady, then a priest, was given the names and addresses of children abused by a serial paedophile priest. The programme claimed that this information was then not passed on to the families or the police, allowing the abuse to continue for at least another decade.
As a number of Catholic dioceses straddle the border, this is an issue that involves Northern Ireland too. In 2011 the NSS wrote to the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland urging him to consider and all Ireland investigation. That request as ignored but the National Secular Society says it now hopes the Justice Minister will take the necessary steps to ensure that individuals within the Catholic Church are not permitted to evade the law which others are expected to follow.
Derry Journal
Published on Friday 4 May 2012
The head of Ireland’s Catholic Church is coming under increasing pressure to resign over a paedophile priest scandal.
The North’s Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness, is the latest high profile personality to comment on Cardinal Sean Brady’s apparent failure to act when alerted to abuse allegations when he was a young priest.
A television documentary this week revealed that, in 1975, a 14-year-old boy who had been sexually abused by paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth gave the then Fr Brady the names and addresses of other children who had been abused.
The programme makers claimed Fr Brady did not pass on the details to the police or parents.
Belfast Telegraph
Thursday, 3 May 2012
While the BBC has produced fresh evidence against Cardinal Sean Brady, head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, in relation to the sex abuse carried out by notorious priest, Fr Brendan Smyth, the fundamental problem for the Primate is unchanged.
He may argue that he did nothing wrong and that his involvement in the interviewing of two victims of the priest were minimal and that he now regrets the culture of silence within the Church at that time. Yet many will feel that is a weak defence.
The Cardinal - who was then simply a priest - was given the names of children at risk from Fr Smyth and while he passed those on to superiors in the Church, neither the police nor the parents were informed.
Cardinal Brady may feel that it was not his role at that time to alert either, yet most right-minded people will regard it as shameful that a Christian organisation should continue to leave some of its most vulnerable flock - children - at risk from a paedophile.
IRELAND
The Irish Times
JIMMY WALSH
SEANAD REPORT: MARTIN CONWAY (FG) said that, as a practising Catholic, he was utterly amazed Cardinal Seán Brady had not tendered his resignation for the sake of all Catholics in this country who believed the church had a future. It was seriously regrettable that this gentleman, who no longer retained moral authority in regard to practising Catholics, had not yet made way for someone who was untainted in any shape or form with what had gone on in the past.
“In order for the church to survive and continue to play its important role in education and in other areas of this country, I think that we need a complete and fundamental clean-out and change at the top in terms of the senior management structure in the Catholic Church.”
David Norris (Ind) said the cardinal was under enormous pressure, but no one could gloat over that. As someone who regarded himself as a Protestant Catholic, he certainly did not do so.
IRELAND
The Irish Times
HARRY MCGEE, Political Correspondent
The Catholic Church has rejected reports that Cardinal Seán Brady was willing to resign two years ago over the Fr Brendan Smyth scandal but that the Vatican refused.
In a statement, a church spokesman said a news report to that effect today was "untrue".
The report in the Irish Independent seemed to be "confusing" an announcement by Dr Brady on May 17th, 2010 requesting Episcopal support, the statement said.
In that statement, Dr Brady said he had asked Pope Benedict for additional support for his work at Episcopal level.
BBC News
One of Ireland's leading theologians has said Cardinal Sean Brady should resign as Catholic Primate of all-Ireland.
It follows fresh claims about a church inquiry into clerical child abuse.
Fr Vincent Twomey, a former Professor at Maynooth College, told RTE that Cardinal Brady has lost his moral authority.
Cardinal Brady is accused of failing to do enough when alerted to abuse allegations when he was a priest.
RTE News
A victim of Fr Brendan Smyth has said Cardinal Seán Brady should not only resign but be investigated by secular authorities for possible criminal charges.
US lawyer Helen McGonigle was abused by the paedophile priest in the late 1960s in Rhode Island.
Speaking to BBC Ulster this morning, Ms McGonigle said she was "outraged" by Cardinal Brady's response to allegations in a BBC documentary broadcast this week.
Belfast Telegraph
Friday, 4 May 2012
The clamour for Cardinal Sean Brady to resign from his position as head of the Catholic Church in Ireland is gathering momentum with political leaders on both sides of the border joining in the criticism of his handling of child sex abuse cases.
His protests that he was just a functionary with no authority when he conducted interviews with children in 1975 who had been abused by notorious paedophile Father Brendan Smyth does not excuse his inaction then or subsequently.
He may have passed on the information to his superiors in the Church, but he also had a moral and legal duty to inform police and child protection agencies of the crimes committed against the children and fears that others were at risk - fears which were later realised. And it is incredible that he did not pursue the matter as he rose through the ranks of the Church or confess his role when Brendan Smyth was later unmasked.
It is also baffling why the RUC or the PSNI have never asked the Cardinal about what he knew about the child abuse crimes in the wake of Smyth's conviction.
Belfast Telegraph
Friday, 4 May 2012
Cardinal Sean Brady did not offer to resign when allegations of his role in a secret inquiry into abuse first broke two years ago, the Catholic Church said.
Amid deepening warnings from government circles that the cleric's position is untenable, the cardinal's spokesman denied claims that he wanted to quit over his role in investigations into paedophile Brendan Smyth.
The beleaguered cardinal has vowed to remain on despite revelations in a BBC documentary that he was aware at least five children were victims of Smyth and abuse reports were not passed to police and parents were not informed.
"No such offer of resignation was made," the cardinal's spokesman said.
Tyrone Times
Published on Wednesday 2 May 2012
There will be no knee-jerk decision on whether to launch a police investigation into the latest claims levelled against the Catholic Church, a senior commander in Northern Ireland has insisted.
Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Assistant Chief Constable George Hamilton said allegations made in a TV documentary on the secret internal Church inquiry in 1975 into paedophile priest Brendan Smyth would be reviewed by specialist detectives first.
Cardinal Sean Brady has faced mounting calls to resign over his role in the historic Church probe, primarily his apparent failure to alert the civil authorities about the abuse claims against Smyth.
IRELAND
The Journal
AN OUT-OF-HOURS counselling service for victims of child abuse has said it noticed a significant increase in calls to its telephone line last night.
A spokesperson for Connect Counselling told TheJournal.ie that it expects the trend to continue over the coming days following revelations about Cardinal Seán Brady’s role in a secret 1975 inquiry into the abuse of children by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.
“We had a noticeable spike in calls,” he said. “That is generally the pattern when the issue of clerical child abuse is raised in the media.”
Connect is a HSE-funded, out-of-hours counselling service for any adult who experienced abuse, trauma or neglect in childhood. The service is also available to partners or relatives of people with these experiences.
Irish Independent
Thursday May 03 2012
A commander in Northern Ireland said a decision on whether to launch an investigation into the claims levelled against Cardinal Brady would not be taken until the evidence was fully assessed.
Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Assistant Chief Constable George Hamilton said a specialist team already investigating alleged institutional abuse in the region was reviewing the documentary to see if there was prima facie evidence that an offence had taken place.
He said officers would "do the right thing" based on where the evidence led them.
"For the last number of months there has been an investigation ongoing under an operation called Operation Charwell into alleged institutional abuse and this is really the context in which we will examine the material that was made available through the BBC documentary," he said.
Irish Independent
By Independent.ie and Press Association reporters
Thursday May 03 2012
EDUCATION Minister Ruairi Quinn has become the latest politician to call on Cardinal Sean Brady to consider his position, following allegations in a BBC documentary about a church inquiry into child abuse in the 1970s.
Earlier Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore and Fr Brian D’Arcy also commented on his position.
Mr Quinn said this stance was appropriate because Cardinal Brady is the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, which is the patron of 92pc of the 3,200 primary schools.
He said that the Catholic Church also should consider the appropriateness of having at its head someone who had ''failed spectacularly to protect children.''
IOL (South Africa)
May 3 2012
By Conor Humphries
DUBLIN - Ireland's deputy prime minister said on Thursday he thought the head of the Irish Catholic Church should resign after a TV documentary reported the cleric had failed to warn parents their children were being sexually abused by a priest in 1975.
A BBC documentary broadcast on Tuesday said that Cardinal Sean Brady was given the names and addresses of children being abused by notorious paedophile Brendan Smyth during a Church investigation but had failed to act to ensure their safety.
“It is my own personal view that anybody who did not deal with the scale of the abuse that we have seen in this case should not hold a position of authority,” Deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore told parliament, when asked about Brady's response to the BBC programme.
Herald
By Garry O'Sullivan
Thursday May 03 2012
TWO years ago, when calls first started for Cardinal Brady to resign, the writing seemed on the wall for him.
At that point, the calls were made over his legalistic and perfunctory performance in 1975 in a Church Tribunal of Inquiry in which, among other explicit questions, a 14-year-old boy was grilled on whether he got enjoyment out of being abused by Fr Brendan Smyth.
I remember taking a phone call from a senior church adviser in the immediate circle around the Cardinal and even this adviser believed he should step down. But the Cardinal clung on.
The Vatican doesn't like to retire cardinals, the thinking being, if you allow senior management to be taken out, one day the mob will come for the CEO himself.
Herald
By Cormac Murphy
Thursday May 03 2012
CARDINAL Sean Brady has insisted he had not been fully aware of the impact of child abuse, even though he heard harrowing victim statements.
The pressure on the leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland to resign intensified today in the wake of revelations of his failure to shield children from paedophile Fr Brendan Smyth.
The priest defended not contacting gardai about the horrific details he heard from victim Brendan Boland and admitted he didn't realise the impact abuse had on children.
He said: "I knew chapter and verse of what was going on. I didn't have the awareness I now have of the impact that behaviour was having on those children."
Herald
By Alan O'Keeffe
Thursday May 03 2012
BARNADO'S chief executive Fergus Finlay was sexually and physically abused by two religious brothers when he was a boy. But his father took action.
Finlay (62) spoke publicly about the abuse for the first time to reject the notion that no-one understood what sex abuse was in the 1960s or 1970s or later.
"I knew what it was, I knew it was abuse. I told my father about it, he knew it was abuse, he knew exactly what action needed to be taken," he said. "As far as I know, the action taken ensured no other child was abused by the same person."e
Vatican Insider
Revelations by a BBC program that a boy abused by a priest gave a 1975 Irish Church Inquiry the names of several boys and girls being abused by the same priest have led to new calls for the resignation of Cardinal Brady, a notary at that inquiry. Many think he had an obligation then to inform the children’s parents, and blame him for not doing so
Gerard O'Connell
Rome
Ireland’s Cardinal Sean Brady has rejected new calls for his resignation following a BBC TV program which he accuses of “seriously misrepresenting” his role in a 1975 Church inquiry into the abuse of children by the late Father Brendan Smyth, a member of the Norbertine religious order, who abused very many children over forty years.
The BBC broadcast the program, “The shame of the Catholic Church” on May 1 in Northern Ireland and on May 2 in the UK.
It recalled how in 1975, the future cardinal, then a young priest, participated in a Church Inquiry that interviewed a 14 year-old boy, Brendan Boland, under oath of secrecy, without his parents being present. Based notes made by Brady then, the BBC revealed that the boy had not only described his own abuse by Smyth, but also gave the names and addresses of two other boys and two girls who suffered a similar fate.
Irish Central
Patrick Roberts
Why do Irish media lynch mob want Cardinal Sean Brady to resign?-- Brady acted in good faith at the time investigating a notorious pedophile priest
The harsh clamor for the resignation of Cardinal Sean Brady because of his alleged involvement in pedophile cover-up is a mistaken call.
Back in 1987 Brady was given a job to report to the-then Bishop of Cavan, Francis McKiernan on the findings of an ecclesiastical commission on the matter of Father Brendan Smyth, a known and notorious pedophile.
The BBC is now reporting that Brady was more than just a note taker as he claimed, but they do not dispute that he gave a full and complete account of the activities of Smyth to his superiors,
In other words all sides agree that Brady collected the information then passed it on to his superiors.
He acted correctly in that respect. Those higher up who ignored his report and allowed Smyth to keep on abusing did not obviously.
Irish Examiner
Thursday, May 03, 2012
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said today that Cardinal Seán Brady should consider his position as head of the Catholic church inIreland
A BBC TV documentary recently revealed that information on victims of paedophile Fr Brendan Smyth was given to a Church investigation, but then-priest Brady did not pass the information on to parents or civil authorities.
Cardinal Brady claims that he was just a notetaker in that inquiry.
“I think Cardinal Brady should reflect on his position and consider his position, but that’s a matter obviously for the church,” said Mr Martin.
Longford Leader
Published on Thursday 3 May 2012
The Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnois has leapt to the defence of under fire Cardinal Sean Brady, saying he would be “very saddened” if the Primate is forced to resign.
Bishop Colm O’Reilly said the County Cavan native had given outstanding service to the church since his appointment as Ireland’s chief cleric almost 15 years ago.
In an interview with longfordleader.ie this morning (Thursday), Bishop O’Reilly also hinted that theVatican
“At the present time, I would be full of regret if he (Cardinal Brady) weren’t to lead the Bishops’ Conference in June as he has given such high quality leadership to the Church,” said Bishop O’Reilly.
Irish Independent
By Edel O'Connell
Thursday May 03 2012
BARNARDOS chief Fergus Finlay has broken his silence about sexual abuse he experienced as a child in a bid to call for greater accountability from the Catholic Church.
The chief executive of the children's charity said the excuse that sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic priests was not dealt with properly in the past because it was "the culture of the time" is a "complete myth".
Mr Finlay (62) broke his silence about his own sexual abuse, which he said happened in 1961 when he was 11 years old and involved an "elderly man" whom he describes as "very religious".
He explained how he told his father about the abuse and his father "dealt with the issue" and ensured the man did not go on to abuse again.
Amnesty International
Amnesty International has called on the Police Service of Northern Ireland to launch an investigation into the potential cover-up of criminal acts of child abuse detailed in the BBC programme This Week, broadcast in Northern Ireland on May 1 2012.
The programme uncovered fresh information about serious acts of sexual abuse of children, living in Northern Ireland and the republic of Ireland, by Fr Brendan Smyth, and suggested that a number of people within the Church hierarchy in Ireland may have failed to report those crimes to the State authorities in either jurisdiction. It is alleged that, as a result, the abuse of these and other children continued for a further period of years.
Amnesty International has called for the PSNI to investigate whether Church officials and others failed to report the alleged criminal offences against children in Northern Ireland to the relevant authorities in Northern Ireland.
Irish Central
By
MOLLY MULDOON,
Irish Voice Reporter
Published Thursday, May 3, 2012
Catholic priests in Ireland face a huge task in re-establishing Irish society's trust as a result of the child abuse scandal and will require strong leadership, according to an Irish American deacon currently studying in Ireland.
The son of an Irish emigrant, Shane Sullivan, 26, was ordained a deacon on Sunday, January 29 in Maynooth, Co. Kildare. A Minnesota native, he is to be ordained into the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Tuam on Sunday, June 3, in Tuam Cathedral, Co. Galway.
The January ceremony marked the last phase in the formation of Sullivan as a seminarian before his ordination into the priesthood in June.
News Letter
Published on Thursday 3 May 2012
THE BBC report this week into the role of Cardinal Sean Brady, head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, in the 1975 investigation into paedophile priest Brendan Smith was profoundly disturbing, but should not come as a surprise.
In 2009 an independent report into child abuse by priests in the Archdiocese of Dublin concluded: “The Dublin Archdiocese’s preoccupations in dealing with cases of child sexual abuse, at least until the mid 1990s, were the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the Church, and the preservation of its assets. All other considerations, including the welfare of children and justice for victims, were subordinated to these priorities. The Archdiocese did not implement its own canon law rules and did its best to avoid any application of the law of the state”.
This, indeed, has been the pattern right across the world: in the USA, in Germany, in France, in Austria: wherever allegations of abuse have surfaced against priests the first instinct was to protect the church from scandal, and not young children from harm.
Irish Independent
Thursday May 03 2012
NOTORIOUS paedophile priest Brendan Smyth abused 30 or more children in the years after Cardinal Sean Brady failed to report his crimes, a former RUC officer has revealed.
Pressure was growing on Dr Brady to resign today as Barnardo’s chief Fergus Finlay joined the calls for him to step down.
Dr Brady’s position is becoming increasingly untenable after new revelations about his failure to report child rape allegations or inform the parents of some of Smyth's victims.
The cardinal admitted that there had been nothing to stop him going to civil authorities about accusations against the serial paedophile.
Irish Independent
By Independent.ie reporters
Thursday May 03 2012
A VICTIM of paedophile priest Brendan Smyth, who was abused after he was reported to Cardinal Sean Brady, today called for the All Ireland Primate to resign.
Sam Adair was abused after the then Fr Brady investigated Smyth, and fellow-victim Brendan Boland had given fives names and addresses of other abused children to the investigation.
He said that at the time of the inquiry Cardinal Brady was not just a note taker, but a skilled canon lawyer.
Speaking on RTE Radio’s Morning Ireland show, he called on the church to compensate Smyth’s victims.
Irish Independent
By Independent.ie reporters
Thursday May 03 2012
CARDINAL Sean Brady is under increasing pressure today as Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore and Fr Brian D’Arcy have commented on his position.
Anyone who did not properly deal with allegations of child abuse against one of Ireland's most dangerous paedophiles should not hold a position of authority, Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore has said.
As Cardinal Sean Brady faced down calls to resign over his role in a secret inquiry into Brendan Smyth, Mr Gilmore said it was his opinion that senior clerics who did not act at the time should resign.
Irish Independent
Thursday May 03 2012
Almost two decades after playing a major role in the collapse of the 1993-4 Fianna Fail/Labour coalition, the crimes of paedophile priest Brendan Smyth continue to cast a long shadow over Irish life.
Now, not for the first time, Cardinal Sean Brady, the leader of Ireland's Catholics, finds himself forced to explain his role in the Church's investigation into Fr Smyth's crimes.
In 1975, the then Fr Sean Brady was called upon to assist in the investigation of allegations of sexual abuse made by several children against Fr Smyth. His role in the investigation was a relatively junior one. He first acted as a notetaker in the interview of one of Fr Smyth's victims and subsequently interviewed a second child who had been identified as a victim of Fr Smyth in the first interview.
Sunday World
Fr. Brian D'Arcy
FIFTY years ago when I first entered The Graan as a 17-year old novice, I tried to be the best I could be. I accepted that the 'old' Brian D'Arcy had to die and that I had to take a new name, Desmond Mary. I accepted that I had to leave my clothes to be locked up by the Novice Master and to put on instead borrowed clothes, habit and walk in sandalled feet as well.
I willingly got up in the middle of the night to pray and then went back to bed before getting up at 6am again. I took all those penances for granted. Silence was an essential part of life and I had to leave my family behind. I could not write to them; I could not speak to them if they came to church. I should not try to understand what was happening in the world. All of which was tough but I bought into it anyway. I knew it was what I had to do to be a priest.
Now I realise it was seriously damaging to me as a person. On one of those bleak days the Rector called me to his cell (room). The Rector had been in Africa and was very close to being made a bishop.
Belfast Telegraph
Cardinal Sean Brady vows to remain as former RUC officer says failures let abuse go on
A former RUC officer who was close to the Brendan Smyth investigation has said that the paedophile priest would have been stopped from ruining countless other lives had he been reported to the authorities in 1975.
Cardinal Sean Brady yesterday vowed he would not resign as the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland despite new claims that he failed to act on evidence he obtained about clerical child abuse.
The beleaguered Primate — Ireland’s most senior cleric— remained defiant that he would not step down as church leader after mounting pressure grew following further alleged ‘cover up’ revelations rocked the church.
BBC News
Irish priest Father Brian D'Arcy has said he believes Cardinal Sean Brady was willing to offer his resignation two years ago but the Vatican refused.
Fr D'Arcy was responding to a BBC This World programme which found that the cardinal failed to pass details of sex abuse to police or parents.
It said that in 1975, Cardinal Brady had the names and address of children being abused by Fr Brendan Smyth.
Smyth, a paedophile, continued to attack children for a further 13 years.
Belfast Telegraph
Cardinal Brady's resignation would signal an acceptance that priests answer to society and not just to the Church, says Malachi O'Doherty
Most of us, if we had been priests of Fr Sean Brady's age in the 1970s, would have done as he did. The priest takes an oath of obedience to his bishop. Brady was assigned by his bishop to investigate a fellow cleric who was allegedly raping children and to report back.
He did everything that was expected of him by the only authority to which he had pledged himself answerable. He ascertained that the odious Brendan Smyth was, indeed, a paedophile priest making use of children for his sexual gratification. And he also spoke to two boys who had been abused in that way and he believed them. Then he swore them to secrecy.
All of this - in the practical, secular view of a later age - was what we would now call collusion in the cover-up of a vile crime. The manipulation of victims for the protection of an offender and of the institution to which that offender belonged.
But what was it in the mind of Sean Brady? It was the exercise of unquestioning obedience and loyalty. It was an outward expression of his faith in the power of the church to do the right thing.
RTE News
Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has described the revelations about further cases of child abuse at the hands of Brendan Smyth as "another horrific episode of failure by senior members of the Catholic Church to protect children".
Mr Gilmore also told the Dáil that anyone who did not deal with the scale of the abuse revealed in this case should not hold a position of authority. However, he stressed that this was his own personal view.
Fianna Fáil's Willie O'Dea asked Mr Gimore about the Government's position on the future of Cardinal Séan Brady, who participated in investigation.
"As far as your question about the Government's position in relation to Cardinal Brady is concerned, let me say this, I have always believed in the separation of church and state,” Mr Gilmore said.
Irish Examiner
A prominent canon lawyer has said that he believes Cardinal Sean Brady's position as Primate of all Ireland is untenable.
It follows allegations in a BBC documentary that information on victims of Fr Brendan Smyth was given to a Church investigation in 1975 but was not passed on to victims' families or law enforcement authorities.
Cardinal Brady insists he was just a notetaker in the inquiry, and had no authority over Fr Smyth.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has urged him to "reflect" on the documentary.
Fr Tom Doyle, a renowned canon lawyer, also featured in the programme.
BBC News
The head of Barnardo's in Ireland has spoken publicly for the first time about being abused as a child.
Fergus Finlay says he felt he had to speak out while taking part in a debate about the BBC's This World programme which found Cardinal Sean Brady failed to pass details of sex abuse by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth to police or parents in 1975.
Cardinal Brady said he accepted he was "part of an unhelpful culture of deference and silence in society, and the Church, which thankfully is now a thing of the past".
Mr Finlay said a changed culture was not a proper explanation.
Belfast Telegraph
Thursday, 3 May 2012
While the BBC has produced fresh evidence against Cardinal Sean Brady, head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, in relation to the sex abuse carried out by notorious priest, Fr Brendan Smyth, the fundamental problem for the Primate is unchanged.
He may argue that he did nothing wrong and that his involvement in the interviewing of two victims of the priest were minimal and that he now regrets the culture of silence within the Church at that time. Yet many will feel that is a weak defence.
The Cardinal - who was then simply a priest - was given the names of children at risk from Fr Smyth and while he passed those on to superiors in the Church, neither the police nor the parents were informed.
Cardinal Brady may feel that it was not his role at that time to alert either, yet most right-minded people will regard it as shameful that a Christian organisation should continue to leave some of its most vulnerable flock - children - at risk from a paedophile.
Irish Examiner
Thursday, May 03, 2012
A prominent priest said today that he believes Cardinal Sean Brady was willing to offer his resignation two years ago, but theVatican
Father Brian D'Arcy said that if he was in Cardinal Sean Brady's position now, he would find it difficult to continue - and has called on him to reflect.
It follows allegations in a BBC documentary that information on victims of Fr Brendan Smyth was given to a Church investigation, but was not passed on to parents or civil authorities by Cardinal Brady, who was then a priest.
Cardinal Brady says he was a notetaker in that inquiry and had no authority over Fr Smyth.
Fr D'Arcy said that the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland can't simply step down and he believes Cardinal Brady may have tried in the past.
IRELAND
The Irish Times
CHARLIE TAYLOR
A man abused by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth in the years after he had been investigated by an inquiry team that include Cardinal Séan Brady has called on the Catholic primate to resign.
Sam Adair, a former resident of the Nazareth Lodge children's home in Belfast, also called on the current primate to offer compensation to Smyth's victims.
Pressure is growing on Cardinal Brady to step down following renewed allegations about his role in a church inquiry team investigating the Norbertine priest in 1975.
A BBC documentary broadcast on Tuesday evening revealed how, in 1975, when he was a priest in the diocese of Kilmore, Dr Brady was given the names and addresses of children who were abused by the serial child sex abuser Smyth.
Irish Examiner
Thursday, May 03, 2012
Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said that it is his personal view that the Catholic Primate of all Ireland, Cardinal Seán Brady, should resign in the wake of the latest abuse scandal.
It follows claims in a BBC TV programme that information on victims of paedophile Fr Brendan Smyth was given to a Church investigation, which Seán Brady was a member of, but was not passed on to parents or law enforcement authorities.
Cardinal Brady said he was just a notetaker in that inquiry.
In the Dáil today, the Tánaiste said that whether it was the 1970s or today, anybody with information about the rape of a child had and has a duty to pass it on.
Belfast Telegraph
Thursday, 3 May 2012
Anyone who did not properly deal with allegations of child abuse against one ofIreland
As Cardinal Sean Brady faced down calls to resign over his role in a secret inquiry into Brendan Smyth, Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore said it was his opinion that senior clerics who did not act at the time should resign.
"It is my personal view that anybody who did not deal with the scale of the abuse that we have seen in this case should not hold a position of authority," Mr Gilmore said.
The beleaguered Cardinal Sean Brady vowed to remain as Primate of All-Ireland on Wednesday after being forced for a second time in three years to account for his role in a 1975 Church inquiry into Smyth's attacks on children.
IRELAND
The Irish Times
IRISH TIMES REPORTERS
Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has today called on Cardinal Seán Brady to resign following renewed allegations concerning his role in an inquiry into allegations of clerical abuse by the paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth.
Speaking in the Dáil this morning, Mr Gilmore said he had always believed in the separation of Church and State.
“But is my own personal view that anybody who did not deal with the scale of the abuse we have seen in this case should not hold a position of authority,’’ he added.
The Tánaiste was replying to Fianna Fail TD Willie O’Dea, who said that every citizen had always had at least a moral obligation to report any abuse to the civil authorities.
Irish Examiner
Thursday, May 03, 2012
It seemed incredible in 1994 that the cover-up involving the paedophile activities of Fr Brendan Smyth had been going on for 19 years by the time it brought down the government of Albert Reynolds.
More than 17 years have passed and the public is presented with another facet of the cover-up, in which the safety of children was recklessly endangered by Church leaders who were more concerned about protecting their own institution from scandal than protecting vulnerable members of its flock.
For more than 37 years, Church figures have been passing the buck, and now it has come the full circle and has landed back on the desk of Cardinal Seán Brady. The latest controversy has been sparked by Tuesday night’s BBC documentary, This World: The Shame of the Catholic Church.
The programme provided details of the testimony of Brendan Boland, who was abused as an 11-year-old altar boy by Fr Brendan Smyth. The abuse went on for a couple of years before he reported it to a priest, who informed his parents and the Church authorities.
IRELAND
The Irish Times
What Cardinal Seán Brady previously said about “resigning”:
In December 2009 in the wake of the publication of the Murphy Report into child abuse in the archdiocese of Dublin, Cardinal Seán Brady was interviewed by RTÉ’s Northern editor Tommie Gorman:
Gorman asked: “If you personally – and let’s boil it down to how you personally would react – if you personally were made aware that through your lack of management skills or through other deficiencies that children had been abused because of that – that you had contributed in any way to that situation – what would you personally do?”
IRELAND
The Irish Times
CAROL COULTER, Legal Affairs Editor
LAST WEEK Minister for Justice Alan Shatter published the Criminal Justice (Withholding of Information on Offences Against Children and Vulnerable Adults) Bill.
This creates a criminal offence of withholding information in relation to serious offences, including sexual offences, committed against a child or vulnerable person.
The Bill will make it mandatory for a person who has or receives such information to pass it on to the Garda, except in certain limited circumstances, including when the child requests the person not to.
In announcing the Bill the Minister said: “The primary purpose of this Bill is to close an existing loophole in our current law.”
IRELAND
The Irish Times
GENEVIEVE CARBERY
FERGUS FINLAY: BARNARDOS CHIEF executive Fergus Finlay yesterday spoke about his own childhood physical and sexual abuse by a religious brother.
Mr Finlay said he had not set out to make “a revelation” but was tired of listening to the excuse that the culture had changed.
The head of the children’s charity was speaking in relation to Cardinal Brady’s response to the BBC documentary on the church’s handing of clerical sex abuse allegations.
“It is a complete myth to suggest that everything is excusable on the basis that the culture somehow changed. There has never been a time that abuse wasn’t abuse,” he said on Newstalk radio. “I was sexually abused in 1961 and I was physically abused in 1963; I was 11 and 13 respectively at the time.”
VATICAN CITY
The Irish Times
PADDY AGNEW in Rome
VATICAN RESPONSE: SENIOR FIGURES in the Holy See yesterday were forthright in their defence of Cardinal Brady, rejecting calls for his resignation and arguing that he had acted correctly in 1975 when he took information from clerical sex abuse victim Brendan Boland.
Senior Vatican spokesman, Fr Federico Lombardi, referred The Irish Times to the statement issued yesterday by Cardinal Brady. In particular, he highlighted a statement made by the Vatican’s chief prosecutor, Msgr Charles Scicluna, to the makers of the BBC documentary, which was itself contained in Cardinal Brady’s statement.
In his statement Msgr Scicluna said that Fr Brady, now Cardinal Brady, “acted promptly and with determination to ensure the allegations being made by the children were believed and acted upon by his superiors”.
In his statement yesterday, Cardinal Brady said the above statement by Msgr Scicluna was made to the BBC Northern Ireland team six weeks before the broadcast of the programme but was “not acknowledged by them in any way”.
IRELAND
The Irish Times
PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent
VICTIMS' RESPONSE: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL has called on the PSNI to investigate whether there was a cover-up of criminal acts of child abuse in Northern Ireland in light of the BBC’s This Week documentary.
Amnesty has asked the PSNI “to investigate whether church officials and others failed to report the alleged criminal offences against children in Northern Ireland to the relevant authorities in Northern Ireland”.
Failure to report a crime is an offence under section 5 of the Criminal Law (Northern Ireland) Act 1967.
No such legislation existed in the Republic in 1975, when the church abuse inquiries dealt with in the programme took place.
IRELAND
The Irish Times
GERRY MORIARTY, Northern Editor and CHARLIE TAYLOR
THE CATHOLIC primate, Cardinal Seán Brady, has said he is not contemplating resignation as a result of criticisms over how he handled sex abuse allegations against the paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth.
He said he would not stand down as primate following a BBC documentary that revealed how, in 1975, when he was a priest in the diocese of Kilmore, he was given the names and addresses of children who were abused by the serial child sex abuser Smyth.
This information, received from a Co Louth boy, Brendan Boland, who had been abused by Smyth, was not passed on to the parents of these children or to the Garda or police in the North.
Cardinal Brady, in an interview with The Irish Times yesterday and in comments to RTÉ, said he would not be resigning despite calls from a number of victims of abuse for him to stand down.
IRELAND
The Irish Times
GERRY MORIARTY, DÉAGLÁN de BRÉADÚN and PATSY McGARRY
CARDINAL SEÁN Brady has criticised elements of a BBC documentary about clerical child sex abuse and complained that it “deliberately exaggerated” his role as a member of a 1975 church inquiry team charged with establishing the accuracy of abuse allegations.
The Catholic primate said he would not be standing down over the issue but acknowledged: “I was part of an unhelpful culture of deference and silence in society, and the church, which thankfully is now a thing of the past.”
Asked about the controversy, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said it was a personal matter for Cardinal Brady to “reflect on the outcome of the programme”.
Of the revelations, he said: “That’s why we published the legislation for child guidelines to be put in law. That’s why we make preparations for a referendum in respect of the protection of rights of children.
National Catholic Reporter
by Isabella R. Moyer on May. 02, 2012 NCR Today
I received an email this morning from a friend in Ireland. She was spitting mad after watching the BBC's "This World" last night. The program claimed that in 1975, Cardinal Seán Brady, the current primate of Ireland, had names and addresses of those being abused by Fr. Brendan Smyth but did not share these with either police or parents.
Brady was quick to issue a statement in his defence. While it contained a few sentences of sadness and regret, the bulk of the statement focused on deflecting the blame to others. His rationale included the fact that the present guidelines for reporting sexual abuse were not in place at the time. And even if they were, he would not have been considered a "designated person" according to present state guidelines and therefore not obligated to notify the legal authorities.
Here in Canada, the Western Catholic Reporter published a story this week called "Abuse crisis needs more talk." Sr. Nuala Kenny is a pediatrician and was a member of the five-member commission that examined sexual abuse at the Mount Cashel Orphanage and in the St. John's, Newfoundland, archdiocese in the late 1980s. She also helped develop the guidelines approved by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1992. These were the first national church guidelines in the world to deal with clergy sexual abuse.
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils...
Paris Arrow
It is very timely that on the first year anniversary of Opus Dei Golden Cow Blessed John Paul II, revelations have hit Ireland that Cardinal Brady, the Catholic primate of all-Ireland failed to protect children from sexual abuse by a paedophile priest and he is being asked to resign...just like Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law who confessed in public to transferring 80 pedophile priests from one parish to another but John Paul II did not bother to meet any of these pedophile priests or their victims. Cardinal Law resigned as Archbishop of Boston but John Paul II papal farted at us Bostonians by taking him to glorify him in Rome. That is why Blessed John Paul II is the Patron Saint of Pedophiles, Pederasts Rapists-Priests. With Cardinal Brady at its head,Ireland
Telegraph (United Kingdom)
By Damian Thompson
10:02PM BST 02 May 2012
Paedophiles are cunning. It’s one of those things we’re always told but doesn’t sink in – until we’re confronted by the sort of detail revealed in last night’s BBC Two documentary This World: The Shame of the Catholic Church. Father Eugene Greene of Donegal liked to fiddle with altar boys, and he knew how to go about it. He’d invite one of them to drive his car. That’s pretty exciting when you’re 12 years old – and an honour, too, given that it’s Father’s car. “Both hands on the wheel!” said the priest. And then he’d reach over. I don’t think I need say any more.
There have been so many television exposés of Catholic clerical paedophilia that diminishing returns set in. Like doctors desensitised to suffering because it follows predictable patterns, we get used to the sight of middle-aged men choking back tears as they describe the residue of anger and shame left by their clerical abusers. That we’ve witnessed variants of this scene so often is, in itself, evidence of the depth and breadth of the Church’s paedophile undergrowth during the heyday of the abuse (at least of the abuse we know about), in the 1970s and 80s.
In the 21st century it takes an extremely well-made programme or one containing important new information to produce the degree of shock these crimes merit. The Shame of the Catholic Church ticked both boxes. In fact, what it told us about Cardinal Seán Brady, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, leaves us in little doubt that his position is hopelessly compromised.
Donegal Democrat
Published on Wednesday 2 May 2012
The extensive abuse of children in west Donegal by Father Eugene Greene was dealt with in an explosive documentary aired last night by the BBC.
The programme, “The shame of the Catholic Church” outlined how decades of clerical abuse and cover up left the Catholic Church inIreland
Investigative journalist, Darragh MacIntyre, made claims on the programme in relation to Cardinal Sean Brady, the Primate of All Ireland, which have stunned the public.
The programme claimed that Cardinal Brady had the names and addresses of children who were being abused or were at risk of being abused by Ireland’s most notorious paedophile, Fr Brendan Smyth, but failed to ensure that they were protected.
IRELAND
The Journal
BARNARDOS CEO FERGUS Finlay has revealed that he is a survivor of child abuse.
Finlay, a long-standing advocate of the rights of children, said that he had been both sexually and physically abused while a child in the early Sixties.
He was commenting amid ongoing controversy over the Primate of All Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady’s role in interviewing a victim of paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth during the 1970s.
Speaking on Newstalk’s The Right Hook, Finlay rejected the suggestion that Brady might have been prevented from acting on his knowledge of the abuse allegations because a different culture existed in Ireland when the interview took place.
UTV
Published Wednesday, 02 May 2012
Cardinal Seán Brady has said he feels "betrayed" by the Church officials who had the authority to stop paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth.
The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland has claimed that officials failed to act on evidence he gave them about clerical child abuse - but he accepts that he "was part of an unhelpful culture of deference and silence in society, and the Church, which thankfully is now a thing of the past".
Cardinal Brady released a statement on Wednesday following new claims that he failed to act on allegations of abuse made against Fr Brendan Smyth.
He said suggestions that he led the 1975 Church inquiry were "seriously misleading and untrue" and that he was asked by Bishop Francis McKiernan of the Diocese of Kilmore to assist senior officials "on a one-off basis only".
Cardinal Brady added that he acted only as a "note-taker" during the inquiry.
Belfast Telegraph
By Gail Walker
Wednesday, 9 May 2012
Why doesn't he just go? Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Martin McGuinness and, crucially, the people want Cardinal Sean Brady to resign. But His Eminence hangs on. Desperately. Counting angels on the top of the pin. A mere humble note taker, he says he did nothing wrong during the investigation into paedophile priest Father Brendan Smyth.
Actually, he did absolutely nothing (apart from forcing Smyth's victims to keep their testimony silent, of course) and consequently many children were raped, abused and forced to endure the anguish of the damned. The investigating panel must have known this was a possible outcome, but instead it seems the policy was to let Smyth go on his merry way and hope for the best.
Did they inform the police about the alleged abuse? No. Did they inform parents of the victims? No.
Did they warn the congregations of parishes that Smyth was shipped to that a child rapist was in their midst? No.
Cardinal Sean Brady must go despite apology, says victim
IRELANDIrish Independent
By Greg Harkin
Wednesday May 09 2012
A SEX-abuse victim has welcomed a public apology from Cardinal Sean Brady but insisted last night that the cleric should quit his position as the leader of Ireland's Catholics.
Brendan Boland was abused for two years from the age of 12 by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth. In March 1975 he told three priests, including the cardinal -- who was then Fr Brady -- of the abuse. He believed his bravery in coming forward would prevent further cases. But Smyth went on to abuse dozens more victims.
Brendan Boland's devastating testimony in the BBC 'This World' programme led to calls for Dr Brady to resign.
Beggaring Belief
IRELANDWaterford Today
Wednesday, 9th May 2012
Here we go again. The Roman Catholic Church has gotten itself bogged down in yet another scandal surrounding the issue of child sexual abuse. This time however it is the head of the Church, The Primate of All Ireland Cardinal Brady that is in the firing line. It has emerged that he knew about the actions of perhaps the most notorious of Ireland's paedophiles - they are many to choose from - Fr. Brendan Smyth and effectively he did nothing about it. There have been some, in the Church and outside of it, that have come to his defence. They say that he did as much as he could have done and that effectively there was nothing that he could have done at the time. Also, they point out, he did as much as anyone could and that the whole issue of priests who sexually abused children was handled differently back then and also that there was not as much information on the issue as there is now and that it is not fair to look at things that happened in the past using the standards that we have today. Those arguments might be well and good for some people but just how much water do they really hold? The first point, and perhaps the only point, is, since when did the rape of children become acceptable to those in the church?
Bishop Donal McKeown criticises politicians over Cardinal Brady response
NORTHERN IRELANDBBC News
Politicians have shown a lack of "statesmanship" over the position of Cardinal Sean Brady, according to the Auxiliary Bishop of Down and Connor.
Bishop Donal McKeown said he was disappointed no-one had "dared to suggest that we might lift the focus from that narrow resignation question".
Writing on his Facebook page, he said: "How many of us, who have lived in the NI glasshouse, are in a position to throw stones?
"That sort of comment would have been painfully honest, and helped us to face our very messy past.
Vatican ‘has blood on hands’ over Smyth affair
Brendan Smyth’s abbot calls on Cardinal Brady to resign as Primate of All-Ireland
IRELANDIrish Central
By
PATRICK COUNIHAN,
IrishCentral Staff Writer
Published Monday, May 7, 2012
A church leader who has admitted his failure in the Brendan Smyth case has refused to absolve Cardinal Sean Brady from blame and believes the Primate of All-Ireland should quit.
Father Kevin Smith was the abbot who transferred vile paedophile Smyth from parish to parish even after he was accused of child abuse.
The former head of the Norbertine Order, Fr Smith has confessed that he is partly responsible for the hundreds of rapes committed by the late Smyth.
Now he says that Cardinal Brady, leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland, must share some of the blame for failing to report the paedophile priest to the civil authorities.
Vatican 'miserably failed' abuse victims
NORTHERN IRELANDBBC News
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness has accused the Vatican of "miserably failing" the victims of child sexual abuse.
He said the failings of Rome were a greater issue than the position of Cardinal Sean Brady.
Mr McGuinness told the Assembly that he loved the Catholic church but that Catholics throughout
The cardinal is accused of failing to act over abuse allegations in 1975.
'No healing until cardinal resigns', abuse victim Brendan Boland says
IRELANDBBC News
Brendan Boland, one of the victims of paedophile priest Father Brendan Smyth, has said his healing and that of other victims cannot begin while Cardinal Sean Brady remains as Catholic Primate of all-Ireland.
He was responding to a public apology made by Dr Brady.
In it, the cardinal admitted he should have passed on information to parents given to him in 1975 by Mr Boland.
That information warned Fr Smyth was a danger to other children.
In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, Mr Boland thanked the cardinal for the apology and said that one day he hoped to find the strength to accept his offer of a face-to-face meeting.
Vatican 'failed' abuse victims
NORTHERN IRELANDFarming Life
Published on Monday 7 May 2012
The Vatican has miserably failed the victims of child sex abuse within the Catholic Church, Stormont's Deputy First Minister has claimed.
Amid continuing calls for Irish Primate Cardinal Sean Brady to resign over his involvement in a controversial Church probe that did not stop notorious paedophile priest Brendan Smyth's reign of abuse, Martin McGuinness shifted focus to Rome's attitude to historic clerical sex crimes.
"The issue of Cardinal Brady's position in all of this is important for a lot of people but of more importance to me is the attitude that pertains in the Vatican and I believe that the major failing that exists in the Catholic Church resides in the Vatican," said the Sinn Fein politician.
Mr McGuinness hit out at how Rome had approached previous inquiries into abuse scandals and warned the Catholic authorities that if they failed to co-operate with a forthcoming investigation into institutional abuse in Northern Ireland they would be compelled to do so.
Cardinal Sean Brady says sorry but won’t resign
IRELANDIrish Independent
By Greg Harkin
Tuesday May 08 2012
CARDINAL Sean Brady last night admitted he was wrong when he failed to tell parents that their children were being abused by Fr Brendan Smyth.
The leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland also apologised to a victim of the notorious paedophile priest.
Brendan Boland was among those targeted by the predatory sex attacker in 1975.
Dr Brady also insisted he would not resign despite growing calls for him to do so, many from within the church.
Irischer Primas räumt Fehler bei Missbrauchsfällen ein
IRLANDkathweb
Kardinal Brady wegen seiner Mitwirkung als Protokollant bei Ermittlungen gegen einen später verurteilten pädophilen Priester weiter in Bedrängnis
08.05.2012
Dublin, 08.05.2012 (KAP) Der irische Kardinal Sean Brady hat Fehler im Umgang mit Missbrauchsfällen in den 1970er Jahren eingeräumt. "Die Eltern aller Opfer hätten informiert werden müssen", sagte Brady in einem Interview des öffentlich-rechtlichen Senders RTE am Montagabend: "Ich bedauere es sehr, dass sie es nicht wurden; wären sie jetzt in der gleichen Situation, würde ich natürlich darauf bestehen, dass sie informiert werden." Er sprach zugleich eine Entschuldigung gegenüber dem Missbrauchsopfer Brendan Boland aus. Er wolle ihn "bei der frühesten Gelegenheit" persönlich um Verzeihung bitten, so der Kardinal.
Kardinal deckte pädophilen Priester
IRLANDtaz (Deutschland)
DUBLIN taz | Wenn er im Fernsehen auftritt, wirkt er unsympathisch und arrogant. Das ist Seán Brady auch. Er ist Kardinal und höchster Würdenträger der katholischen Kirche Irlands. Forderungen nach seinem Rücktritt wischt er lässig vom Tisch. Dabei hätte er allen Grund, sein Amt zur Verfügung zu stellen.
Die BBC hat jetzt aufgedeckt, dass Brady im Jahr 1975, als er noch einfacher Pfarrer war, von dem damals 14-jährigen Brendan Boland über die Machenschaften des pädokriminellen Pfarrers Brendan Smyth informiert worden war. Boland gab Brady die Namen von fünf weiteren Jugendlichen, die ebenfalls von Smyth vergewaltigt worden waren.
Meeting hears calls for dialogue at all levels in Irish church
The Irish Times
PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent, and MARIE O'HALLORAN
MORE THAN 1,000 Catholic laity, priests and nuns called for dialogue in the Irish church at a day-long conference in Dublin yesterday.
Titled “Toward an Assembly of the Catholic Church”, the conference agreed such dialogue should “work towards establishing appropriate structures that would reflect the participation of all the baptised”.
It “should take place at parish, diocesan and national levels” and “address all issues facing our people at this time of crisis”.
The conference agreed on the need to recapture “as a matter of urgency” the reforming vision of the Second Vatican Council and called on all who were “concerned with the future of our church, including our church leaders, to participate in this dialogue.”
Silencing us won't solve Catholic Church's problems, say priests
IRELANDBelfast Telegraph
By Mark Hilliard
Tuesday, 8 May 2012
Silencing priests is not an appropriate method of ending disagreements within the church, the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) said yesterday.
More than 1,000 people attended a meeting to discuss how to solve the church "crisis" that includes continuing abuse scandals and declining Mass attendance.
Fr Brendan Hoban of the ACP told the gathering at Dublin's Regency Hotel that clamping down on "wayward" opinions was not the way to deal with issues.
He was referring to the recent censoring of a number of priests including Fr Brian D'Arcy and Fr Tony Flannery who voiced opinions unpopular with the hierarchy.
Cardinal Brady’s situation ...
IRELANDCatholic Herald (United Kingdom)
Cardinal Brady’s situation is now irretrievable, and he would be wise, therefore, to retire; but the storm beating down on him is wholly undeserved
By William Oddie
I begin by quoting an article by Jenny McCartney in this week’s Sunday Telegraph. Firstly, because she is normally a fair-minded and well-informed commentator; secondly because she sums up well enough what seems to be the general tenor of the obloquy now raining down on the head of Cardinal Seán Brady. Jenny McCartney puts it like this: “It has become a painfully self-evident truth – surely, even to the silent onlookers at the Vatican – that the longer Cardinal Seán Brady stays in place as Primate of All Ireland, the greater the damage inflicted on the reputation of the Catholic Church in Ireland and beyond.”
I wonder, I really do wonder, if anyone has really thought through the implications of all this. What we have here, it seems to me, may well be nearer to the phenomenon we call today a “witch hunt” than to a common understanding based on an equitable understanding of the reality of the situation. The mass psychology of these affairs is rarely based on reason or justice; and such, I suggest, is the case here.
It may well be that Cardinal Brady, who is 72, should take early retirement, given the wholly intractable nature of the situation that has now arisen. It coud be that this is the only way forward, since fighting on is likely only to exacerbate the situation: he cannot expect to be listened to now, however reasonable his self-defence may be. Fr Vincent Twomey, the eminent retired professor of moral theology at Maynooth, says with some justice: “There is a sense of a Greek tragedy in all of this. In the Greek tragedy, people do things intending to do the good thing but instead some awful, dreadful things happen as a result of their actions and they have to pay for it… I think for the good of the Church, I’m afraid I am of the opinion that he should resign….”
Cardinal Sean Brady issues apology over paedophile scandal
The Guardian (
Henry McDonald in Dublin
guardian.co.uk, Monday 7 May 2012
The embattled leader of Ireland's Catholics, Cardinal Sean Brady, has issued a public apology to a man who revealed that he failed to report to police and parents a list of children who were being abused by a notorious paedophile priest.
But one victim has denounced the move, saying it was part of a survival strategy by Brady and the Irish Catholic hierarchy.
Andrew Madden, an abuse victim who detailed his ordeal at the hands of a north Dublin priest in his book Altar Boy, said Brady's apology to Brendan Boland should not be used to help keep the cardinal in his position.
Madden said: "Ultimately it's up to Brendan Boland to decide what he thinks of the apology, but it looks like a very self-serving one now that he is in so much trouble.
Only Cardinal Brady can take responsibility for his actions
IRELANDIrish Examiner
By Fergus Finlay
Tuesday, May 08, 2012
I’VE been asked a lot during the last week whether I think Cardinal Brady should resign.
My instinctive answer has been yes, because I really don’t believe any renewal of the Church’s moral authority in Ireland is possible under his leadership.
Moral authority is a force for good. Not when it is exercised through power and oppressiveness, but when it is based on compassion and some degree of understanding. A society in transition, that is searching for values, needs to be able to turn to authority figures that have earned respect.
It’s that type and level of moral authority that needs to be renewed, and that is beyond the capacity of Cardinal Brady to deliver. That’s why, any time I’ve been asked, I have said he should go.
Brady says parents of abused children should have been told
The Irish Times
KITTY HOLLAND and PATSY McGARRY
THE CATHOLIC primate, Cardinal Seán Brady, has said parents of children he knew in 1975 had been abused by Fr Brendan Smyth should have been told.
“I regret very much that they weren’t, and obviously if we were in the same situation now we would insist they be informed,” he said yesterday.
Were it now, he would make it “absolutely certain” that parents were informed.
“It would be a matter of insisting that somebody should do it because the parents have a right to know, and obviously the fact that they weren’t informed was a great source of pain and further traumatisation to these children.”
Cardinal Brady apologises to abuse victim Brendan Boland
IRELANDBBC News
Cardinal Sean Brady has said he wants to personally apologise to a man who was abused as a 14-year-old boy by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.
Cardinal Brady has come under pressure after a BBC documentary.
It accused him of failing to act on abuse allegations when he was a young priest.
He said he had no intention of stepping aside but hoped an assistant - with succession rights - would be quickly appointed to his archdiocese.
Sex Abuse Documentary Threatens to Topple Head of Ireland's Catholic Church
IRELANDTIME - Global Spin
By William Lee Adams | @willyleeadams | May 7, 2012
During the four decades that pedophile priest Brendan Smyth abused children, he frequently took them on driving excursions across
Cardinal Seán Brady apologises to abuse victim Brendan Boland
IRELANDRTE nEWS
Cardinal Seán Brady has publicly apologised to Brendan Boland, a survivor of paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth.
Seán Brady has no intention of stepping aside
Speaking at Lough Derg following a penitential pilgrimage in advance of next month's Eucharistic Congress, Dr Brady also said he had no intention of stepping aside, despite continuing calls for his resignation.
He said there had also been "many many calls from people who want me to stay on."
But he said he hoped a coadjutor - with succession rights - would be appointed to his archdiocese as soon as possible.
Dublin’s Archbishop Martin intervenes in dramatic crisis of Irish Church
IRELANDVatican Insider
Diarmuid Martin has called for an independent commission to investigate the case of Father Brendan Smyth who abused more than 100 children over 40 years. Top politicians have called for Cardinal Brady’s resignation because of his involvement in this case
Gerard O'Connell
Rome
As the dramatic crisis in the Irish Catholic Church deepened with calls for Cardinal Brady’s resignation over his role in an inquiry into the abuse of children by the notorious pedophile priest - Fr Brendan Smyth, the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin has called for the setting up of “an independent commission of investigation” into the abuse of children by that priest as the best way to arrive at the whole truth.
Archbishop Martin made his proposal when responding to questions from journalists on the crisis after celebrating Mass at St. Francis Xavier church in Dublin, Sunday, May 6. Hours later, a spokesman for Cardinal Brady said he “welcomed and supported” the proposal.
“I really believe that we need an independent Commission of investigation into the activities of Brendan Smyth and how he was allowed to abuse for so many years,” Archbishop Martin stated.
'I'm not only one responsible,' insists former abbot
IRELANDIrish Independent
By Greg Harkin
Monday May 07 2012
THE abbot who moved paedophile priest Brendan Smyth from diocese to diocese but failed to prevent him abusing more children has said Cardinal Sean Brady must share some of the blame.
Father Kevin Smith is, by his own admission, partly responsible for the hundreds of crimes of child rape and abuse committed by Smyth.
But the former head of the Norbertine Order was also spreading the blame at the weekend.
Now 81 and forced out of his position as head of the order to which Smyth belonged, he called for Dr Brady to resign.
Brady welcomes sex abuse inquiry call
The Irish Times
PATSY McGARRY and GERRY MORIARTY
CATHOLIC PRIMATE Cardinal Seán Brady has welcomed yesterday’s call for an independent inquiry into Fr Brendan Smyth’s abuse of children in Ireland and elsewhere over a 40-year period.
A spokesman for the cardinal said last night that he “welcomed and supported” the proposal made by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin.
Speaking after Mass at St Francis Xavier Church on Dublin’s Gardiner Street, Dr Martin said: “We’re getting all these bits and pieces of information about a horrible situation, what Brendan Smyth did to children.”
He believed “that until all of this story in its entirety comes out, we are not doing justice to those who were abused and we’re not really getting at the truth”.
Clearly Cardinal Brady’s time at helm is almost up
IRELANDBelfast Telegraph
By Alf McCreary
Monday, 7 May 2012
One of the saddest sights this week has been watching Cardinal Sean Brady trying to defend the indefensible. He is a good man caught up in a public struggle for the soul of the Irish Catholic Church, and he is now well out of his depth.
Two years ago when the story broke about his involvement in a secret meeting with a young victim of the paedophile Brendan Smyth, I was one of the few commentators to suggest publicly that Cardinal Brady should resign.
Even then it was obvious to me that the game was up, and afterwards a number of prominent people told me privately that they agreed with my view.
However, Cardinal Brady chose to struggle on, in an attempt to spearhead reforms as a “wounded healer”. He has tried to do so with dignity and courage, and his many friends inside and outside the Catholic Church wince for this decent human being who became the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Brady's warm tribute to bishop who kept Smyth link quiet
The Irish Times
PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent
IT WAS June 7th, 2001, at the cathedral in Cavan town and the Catholic primate Archbishop (as he still was) Seán Brady was in jovial mood. At a Mass marking the golden jubilee of the ordination of his old boss Bishop Francis McKiernan, who retired in 1998, he began a warm tribute by saying he was “tempted to offer the prayer of the man who fell into the vat of stout in Guinness’s brewery. He prayed, ‘Lord give me a mouth worthy of this glorious opportunity’.”
Archbishop Brady recalled that it was “some 49 years since I first met the then Fr McKiernan. He was in St Patrick’s College, [Cavan] for the second time, I, for the first – he as teacher, I as student”. As Fr Brady, he returned to teach at St Patrick’s in 1967 and was there until 1980. During that time he was secretary to Bishop McKiernan, based too in Cavan town. In 1975, Fr Brady conducted the two inquiries which led to faculties to minister in Kilmore diocese being withdrawn from child abuser Brendan Smyth.
But apart from the teacher-pupil, bishop-secretary relationship he had with Bishop McKiernan, in June 2001 Archbishop Brady had another reason to be grateful to his old mentor. Bishop McKiernan had kept his name out of the loop when the sky fell in following the 1994 jailing of Fr Brendan Smyth in Belfast.
Diarmuid Martin calls for independent inquiry into Brendan Smyth abuse
The Journal
THE ARCHBISHOP OF Dublin has called for an independent commission to investigate the abuse of children by Fr Brendan Smyth.
Diarmuid Martin said only a full inquiry would reveal the “full story” of Fr Smyth’s crimes, and how he was allowed to continue abusing for so long.
He said the abuse was of “such a dimension” – taking place in the Republic, Northern Ireland and the US – that only an international investigation would be sufficient.
Speaking on RTÉ’s This Week, Martin said he was calling for:
An independent commission of investigation into the activities of Brendan Smyth, as to how he was allowed to abuse for so many years. A commission that would look north and south, Church and State.
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin calls for establishment of independent Fr Brendan Smyth inquiry
IRELANDRTE News
The Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, has called for an independent international commission of inquiry into the crimes of Fr Brendan Smyth, the late paedophile priest.
Dr Martin said such an inquiry was owed to victims and that it would be in the public interest that the full story, and not bits and pieces, should come out.
Meanwhile, Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise Colm O'Reilly has described as "bizarre" the interview methods used by Cardinal Seán Brady during a Church inquiry into clerical child sexual abuse in the 1970s.
However, he said he felt Cardinal Brady should not stand aside as Catholic Primate of Ireland as he believed the then Fr Brady acted conscientiously.
Speaking on RTÉ's This Week, Bishop O'Reilly also said he did not know why there is a difficulty with Cardinal Brady making a public apology to Brendan Boland, who was abused by Fr Smyth.
Archbishop Martin calls for abuse probe
IRELANDIrish Examiner
Sunday, May 06, 2012
Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has called for an independent investigation into past allegations of clerical sex abuse.
As Archbishop Martin spoke out against the past failings of the Church, another bishop defended Cardinal Sean Brady, whose involvement in a secret 1975 probe into allegations of abuse has come under fire.
Archbishop Martin said a commission should be set up to examine all accusations against paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.
Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin calls for Catholic sex abuse investigation
The Independent (
Lyndsey Telford
Sunday 06 May 2012
One of the highest ranking members of the Catholic Church in Ireland has called for an independent investigation into past allegations of clerical sex abuse.
As Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin spoke out against the past failings of the Church, another bishop defended Cardinal Sean Brady, whose involvement in a secret 1975 probe into allegations of abuse has come under fire.
Archbishop Martin said a commission should be set up to examine all accusations against paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.
"I know it's not fashionable to talk about commissions, but I believe an independent commission to investigate the activities of Brendan Smyth, as to how he was allowed to abuse for so many years - north and south, church and state," Archbishop Martin told RTE.
Irish people asked to petition for Primate Sean Brady’s resignation
IRELANDIrish Central
By
CATHY HAYES,
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer
Published Sunday, May 6, 2012,
Young and old alike were signing a national petition launched on Friday by concerned local people in Donegal calling on Cardinal Sean Brady to resign from his post as Primate of All Ireland.
The online version of the petition has already been by people within Ireland, but also in England, Spain and the United States. Aside from individual concerns, no specific organization or group was behind the initiative, which comes at a time of social and spiritual uncertainty in the county and the country.
Entitled the "Peoples' Petition," the campaign was launched in the town of Falcarragh in the western part of the county, an area where multiple instances of child sex abuse by priests has taken place over the years, especially at the hands of convicted pedophile and former priest Eugene Green, found to have abused more than 26 children.
Sean Hillen one of the leaders behind the initiative, explained the reason for what he termed the "Peoples’ Petition."
Dublin archbishop in Brendan Smyth inquiry call
IRELANDBBC News
The Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, has called for an independent international commission of inquiry into the crimes of paedophile priest, the late Fr Brendan Smyth.
Dr Diarmuid Martin said Smyth's victims were owed such an inquiry.
It would be in the public interest that the full story came out, not bits and pieces, he told RTE Radio 1 on Sunday.
His comments follow a week when the Irish Primate came under pressure over his role in a 1975 inquiry into Smyth.
Archbishop of Dublin wants Smyth inquiry
IRELANDUTV
Published Sunday, 06 May 2012
The Archbishop of Dublin is calling for a full independent inquiry into the activities of paedophile priest Father Brendan Smyth.
It comes in the wake of this week's BBC documentary, centred on All-Ireland primate Cardinal Sean Brady's role in the church's initial investigation in 1975.
The programme included claims that then Fr Brady failed to adequately protect children against the notorious child molester.
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin says a full commission of investigation should take place, covering both Northern Ireland and the Republic.
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin Calls For Inquiry Into Paedophile Priest Brendan Smyth's Child Abuse
IRELANDHuffington Post
One of the highest ranking members of the Catholic Church in Ireland has called for an independent investigation into past allegations of clerical sex abuse.
As Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin spoke out against the past failings of the Church, another bishop defended Cardinal Sean Brady, whose involvement in a secret 1975 probe into allegations of abuse has come under fire.
Archbishop Martin said a commission should be set up to examine all accusations against paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.
"I know it's not fashionable to talk about commissions, but I believe an independent commission to investigate the activities of Brendan Smyth, as to how he was allowed to abuse for so many years - north and south, church and state," Archbishop Martin told RTE, Ireland's national broadcaster.
Martin wants commision set up into Smyth abuse cases
The Irish Times
Patsy McGarry Religious Affairs Correspondent
An independent commission of investigation ought to be set up to inquire into the abuse of children by Fr Brendan Smyth, the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has said. This was necessary as “the Brendan Smyth story is of such a dimension,” he said earlier today.
Where Cardinal Brady was concerned he said “I’ve never called for anybody’s resignation, I’ve never done that. Everybody has to make their own decisions.”
Asked about the censuring of Irish priests by the Vatican he believed the best way to deal with such cases was to address them first in Ireland. “I think the Theological Commission of the Irish bishops has not been carrying out its function as in other countries where this dialogue would take place as a first stage and then be resolved without it necessarily being dealt with from Rome directly,” he said. He “would have preferred that these matters be dealt with in a dialogue…in a robust dialogue within the Irish church.”
Survivors call for reopening of Redress Board
IRELANDLimerick Post
by Rebekah Commane
Monday, 30 April 2012
SURVIVORS of institutional abuse are calling for the reopening of The Redress Board and for more transparency on plans for a €110 million trust fund. The Right of Place/Second Chance Group believes that many people were not ready to come forward to the Board and apply for compensation while it was open, but they may now want to do so. In its recently published annual report, the group also called on the government to publish plans for the trust fund contributed to by 18 religious congregations. Right of Place/Second Chance Outreach Co-ordinator for HSE West, Val Groarke, said the group is worried that the government are dragging their feet in coming up with criteria for recipients of the fund.
He urged the government to supplement the fund on an annual basis to allow survivors who have not yet come forward, to access it.
“I believe that there are a lot of people out there who didn’t get the redress,” Mr. Groarke told the Limerick Post.
Eilis O'Hanlon: Brady's greatest failing is that he has learnt nothing
IRELANDIrish Independent
Sunday May 06 2012
CONTEMPT for authority has become so ubiquitous these days that it's the self-proclaimed individualists who all end up thinking and sounding alike, and those who, by remaining faithful to tradition, are actually the last remaining non-conformists.
All the same, the fact remains. Ours is an age which worships mavericks. Free thinking and iconoclasm are held up as ideals. Duty and obedience are scorned.
It's Archbishop Sean Brady's misfortune to be caught in the pincer movement between those two forces and to find himself radically at odds with his society as a result. He is clearly a man who needs the comfort and solidarity that comes from subsuming one's identity into a greater whole; who is temperamentally suited to belonging. Many priests are.
Rome to take action on Brady before year end
IRELANDIrish Independent
By DON LAVERY
Sunday May 06 2012
Vatican likely to appoint coadjutor bishop for top churchman under fire over documentary
CARDINAL Sean Brady -- under increasing pressure over his failure as a priest to report child rape allegations to civil authorities -- will effectively be replaced by a coadjutor bishop within months when Rome finally acts to deal with the latest fallout from the activities of notorious paedophile Fr Brendan Smyth.
Despite a week of unrelenting demands for Dr Brady to resign from Smyth's victims, child abuse groups, politicians, and some clergy, the indications were yesterday that the cardinal has no intention of resigning, particularly as he will play a role in the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin next month.
However, with just two years to go to his retirement age of 75, the Vatican, which will also consider reports from the Papal Nuncio's office, is to appoint a coadjutor bishop this year who will be a successor to the cardinal.
Cardinal Brady's duty in Smyth scandal
IRELANDIrish Independent
Thursday May 03 2012
Almost two decades after playing a major role in the collapse of the 1993-4 Fianna Fail/Labour coalition, the crimes of paedophile priest Brendan Smyth continue to cast a long shadow over Irish life.
Now, not for the first time, Cardinal Sean Brady, the leader of Ireland's Catholics, finds himself forced to explain his role in the Church's investigation into Fr Smyth's crimes.
In 1975, the then Fr Sean Brady was called upon to assist in the investigation of allegations of sexual abuse made by several children against Fr Smyth. His role in the investigation was a relatively junior one. He first acted as a notetaker in the interview of one of Fr Smyth's victims and subsequently interviewed a second child who had been identified as a victim of Fr Smyth in the first interview.
Emer O'Kelly: There's no excuse under civil law
IRELANDIrish Independent
Sunday May 06 2012
Senior church figures in the Vatican have come, once again, to the defence of the now intensely beleaguered Cardinal Sean Brady.
In 1975 Fr Sean Brady, a 36-year-old canon lawyer, was appointed to be one of three churchmen conducting an inquiry into the sexual molestation of children by the Norbertine priest Brendan Smyth. Sean Brady says now, as he said after the publication of the Murphy report in 2009, that he had believed the children's allegations. And that he presumed that when he passed his report to his superiors, he believed in good faith that it would be followed up to protect those children and others. At the time, after one session in company with the other religious lawyers, and one where he questioned at least one child alone, he swore them to secrecy about their abuse. He did nothing further.
Those are the bones of the actions which the Vatican was defending last week, saying he "acted correctly". And that is the core of the problem. He did act "correctly" according to canon law. He did not act compassionately; he did not act responsibly; he did not act justly.
Colum Kenny...
IRELANDIrish Independent
Colum Kenny: 'You never got to like it?' The answer to that sinister, suspicious, insinuating, abusive question remains 'No'
By Colum Kenny
Sunday May 06 2012
'You never got to like it?" That was one of the remarkable questions put to Brendan Boland when he was interrogated by priests in 1975 after reporting to the Catholic Church his sexual abuse at the hands of Fr Brendan Smyth.
"You never got to like it?" The question itself is abusive. It serves no obvious good purpose. I sought an explanation for it last week, but was told only that the entire exercise was intended "to gather evidence against the criminal priest".
A spokesperson for Cardinal Sean Brady, who was present as a priest at that investigation in 1975, told me that Brady "did not construct those questions or ask those questions". But he was there and he signed off on them (as plain "John" and not "Sean" Brady).
"You never got to like it?" Being abused, that is. The answer that Boland gave to the three priests was an absolute "No".
How the Church is airbrushing abuse out of its sacred history
IRELANDIrish Independent
A new reference book on the Archdiocese of Dublin which lists every priest who served there up to 2011 leaves out some important names.
The 400-page book, The Archbishops, Bishops and Priests who served in the Archdiocese of Dublin 1900-2011, gives the names and CVs of the nearly 2,000 priests who have served since 1900 -- except those guilty of sex abuse, who have been airbrushed from history.
The book is written by Fr J Anthony Gaughan, author, historian, former UCD chaplain and retired parish priest in Blackrock, Co Dublin. It includes a foreword by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, praising the work as giving due recognition to the ordinary priests who would not otherwise be recorded in the annals of history.
To date, the Dublin Archdiocese has paid out over €13.5m in compensation to victims of abuse, well over 500 victims have been identified, at least eight priests have faced criminal cases and civil actions have been brought against 35 priests, all of whom were part of the archdiocese.
Paedophile priest Brendan Smyth allowed to return to saying Mass in 1984
IRELANDRTE News
It has emerged that the Diocese of Kilmore allowed paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth to return to hearing confession and saying Mass in public in 1984.
This came nine years after a 1975 inquiry led to him being banned from doing so. Cardinal Sean Brady, then a priest, participated in that inquiry.
According to a statement issued to RTÉ News this evening by the current Bishop of the diocese, Dr Leo O'Reilly, in 1984 Smyth asked the then Bishop, the late Dr Francis MacKiernan, to lift the ban.
Following consultations with the then Abbott of Smyth's monastery, Bishop MacKiernan acceded to Smyth's request.
Vatican set to send bishop to help Brady
IRELANDHerald
By Fiona Dillon
Saturday May 05 2012
THE Vatican is expected to quickly appoint a Bishop to assist Cardinal Sean Brady as he battles calls for him to resign as Primate of All Ireland.
Pressure is being ratcheted up on him to step down over his handling of the allegations against paedophile priest Brendan Smyth in 1975.
However, Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore has vehemently denied that some politicians were trying to hound Cardinal Brady out of office.
He said it was the responsibility of the Church and not the Government to decide who remains in or leaves a position.
Victim: Cardinal ‘failed to fulfil duty’
The Irish Sun
By AOIFE FINNERAN
PRESSURE on embattled Cardinal Sean Brady to resign increased after a victim of paedophile Fr Brendan Smyth claimed he should face a criminal investigation.
US lawyer Helen McGonigle, who was abused by Smyth in the Sixties in Rhode Island, said Cardinal Brady’s failure to protect victims was “unforgivable”.
She blasted the cleric for his “arrogance and insensitivity” after it emerged that he did not tell authorities about at least five children who were victims of Smyth.
Brady was a priest in 1975 when he took part in a church inquiry into allegations by Brendan Boland, then 14, that he had been abused by Smyth.
Vatican ‘has blood on hands’ over Smyth affair
UNITED STATES/IRELANDIrish Examiner
By Claire O’Sullivan
Saturday, May 05, 2012
An American lawyer who was abused by Fr Brendan Smyth has said that the Vatican has "blood on its hands" for its failure to inform Irish Church authorities that it had censured Smyth for abuse in the United States years before the 1975 secret inquiry.
Helen McGonigle has learnt that the Vatican’s Congregation for the Religious issued a decree that Smyth wasn’t allowed to take Confession and was to be supervised following abuse complaints made in the late 60s.
Yet, in 1975 the Bishop of Kilmore and the Abbot of Killnacrott agreed a similar censure of Smyth — seemingly oblivious that a similar reprimand had already been handed down.
"Why didn’t the bishop or the abbot inform the Papal Nuncio of this second censure? Why weren’t they informed by the Vatican of the original censure? It is very clear that the 1968 censure was not enforced. What does all of this say about the organisation that is the Catholic Church," Ms McGonigle asked.
Cardinal Sean Brady offer to step down...
IRELANDBelfast Telegraph
Cardinal Sean Brady offer to step down in 2010 ‘was rejected by Vatican’
By Greg Harkin
Saturday, 5 May 2012
Cardinal Sean Brady was willing to resign over the Brendan Smyth affair two years ago but the Vatican refused because it had “no idea” who to replace him with, sources indicate.
The cardinal was in meetings with advisers on Thursday amid growing calls for him to stand down over his handling of child rape allegations against paedophile priest Smyth in 1975.
It has been learned Dr Brady was willing to step down, but dithering by the Vatican delayed the selection of a successor.
Asked if he had indicated his willingness to resign to the Pope two years ago, a Catholic Communications Office spokesman would neither confirm nor deny the claim, which was given currency yesterday by ‘celebrity’ priest Father Brian D'Arcy.
As Cardinal Sean Brady turns his back on calls to quit...
NORTHERN IRELANDBelfast Telegraph
As Cardinal Sean Brady turns his back on calls to quit, pressure mounts on police to get involved
By Liam Clarke
Saturday, 5 May 2012
Pressure is growing on the PSNI to interview Cardinal Sean Brady over the most recent claims in the child sex abuse scandal.
The police didn’t act two years ago when the revelations that Dr Brady was present at the interview of two victims of paedophile priest Brendan Smyth first emerged.
One of the young victims, Brendan Boland, gave the names and addresses of several other children he knew were being abused by Smyth.
Despite this evidence nothing was done to warn the children’s parents or inform the police, and Smyth went on to abuse dozens more children over subsequent decades until he was finally brought to justice in the 1990s, dying in prison in 1997.
Cardinal Sean Brady plans his exit strategy
IRELANDBelfast Telegraph
By Liam Clarke
Saturday, 5 May 2012
An auxiliary bishop is to be appointed by the Vatican to work beside Cardinal Sean Brady as part of a carefully choreographed exit strategy for the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland.
The coadjutor bishop would be a senior Church figure who would act as the cardinal’s understudy in his role as Archbishop of Armagh, before eventually inheriting the role after a respectable amount of time had elapsed.
The furore over Cardinal Brady’s handling of child sex abuse allegations when he was a priest in the 1970s, which re-ignited this week, has taken a heavy toll on the Church leader.
Gilmore denies party plot to oust cardinal
IRELANDIrish Independent
By Fionnan Sheahan and Lise Hand
Saturday May 05 2012
Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore last night denied politicians were trying to hound Cardinal Sean Brady out of office in the wake of revelations of his failure to report child rape allegations against the notorious paedophile Fr Brendan Smyth.
Labour Party ministers continued to pile pressure on Dr Brady to resign yesterday -- in contrast to the approach of their Fine Gael colleagues.
Although government sources insist there is no tension between the parties, Labour has been far more vocal about the cardinal's position than their coalition partners.
Social Welfare Minister Joan Burton added to calls for him to consider his position.
Advisers backed resignation of Brady to save church's image
IRELANDIrish Independent
By Greg Harkin
Saturday May 05 2012
CARDINAL Sean Brady was backed by his senior advisers when he offered to resign more than two years ago, the Irish Independent has learned.
The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland informed the Vatican of his "willingness to stand aside" as one of a range of possible options when his role in the Brendan Smyth controversy became public in 2010.
And his senior advisers backed the move -- expressing concern that the Smyth controversy would damage the church.
The cardinal is now planning an alternative exit strategy.
Cardinal Brady had asked the Pope for 'Episcopal help' or an auxiliary bishop two years ago when the controversy first erupted, but the bishop was not appointed.
'Smyth confessed like serial killer, and was happier for it'
IRELANDIrish Independent
By Allison Bray
Saturday May 05 2012
NOTORIOUS paedophile priest Brendan Smyth "candidly" admitted to raping young children like a serial killer confessing to a string of murders.
That is one of the chilling memories of the whistleblower whose confrontation with the priest led to his conviction.
Jude Whyte (55), a social work lecturer, said a former adult student told him about the sexual abuse of his children at the hands of the disgraced priest in 1994.
Mr Whyte, who now teaches at the Department of Health and Social Care at
Restoration of rights to Smyth beggars belief
The Irish Times
PATSY McGARRY
IT BEGGARS belief that, following what was discovered about Fr Brendan Smyth’s abuse of children at two 1975 church inquiries, the bishop of Kilmore diocese, Francis McKiernan, would have restored to the priest his right to hear Confession and say Mass publicly there.
Those faculties were removed following the inquiry conducted by then Fr Seán Brady, Fr Francis Donnelly and Fr Oliver McShane with 14-year-old Brendan Boland in Dundalk on March 29th, 1975. He told them of his abuse and that of five other young people by Smyth.
On April 4th, 1975, Fr Brady interviewed a 15-year-old boy at the parochial house in Ballyjamesduff, Co Cavan, concerning his abuse by Smyth. He was one of five young people whose names and addresses had been given by Brendan Boland at that inquiry in Dundalk. Four of those were never spoken to by any priest, nor were their parents. Nor were the parents of the 15-year-old boy interviewed by Fr Brady in Ballyjamesduff.
We now know, following last Tuesday’s BBC This World documentary, that Smyth continued to abuse another boy, who was on the list supplied by Boland to the priests, until 1976, that boy’s sister until 1982 and four cousins of theirs, members of one family in
Gilmore denies Ministers campaigning on Brady
The Irish Times
DEAGLAN de BRÉADÚN, TOM SHIEL, MARTIN WALL and PAMELA DUNCAN
TÁNAISTE EAMON Gilmore said Government Ministers were not seeking to drive Cardinal Seán Brady out of office.
“It’s not the case,” he told reporters in Dublin yesterday. “There is a separation in this country between church and State. It is not the Government’s responsibility to decide who are bishops or who should remain as bishops, or archbishops or cardinals – that’s entirely a matter for the church.
“What is the Government’s business is to ensure that there is adequate protection provided for in this State for children.
“We have seen appalling episodes of the abuse and rape of children in this country by people who have responsibility over them, including clergy people and, in effect, a cover-up of that in many respects by church authorities.
Cardinal's dilemma has echoes in Boston scandal
The Irish Times
KEVIN CULLEN
ANALYSIS: AS HE sits in Ara Coeli in Armagh, Cardinal Seán Brady has begun to resemble someone who was under siege in a similarly fine house a decade ago: Cardinal Bernard Law, the archbishop of Boston who became the first American bishop to resign over a sex abuse scandal involving priests under his supervision.
The drumbeat for Cardinal Brady’s resignation, growing louder each day, is reminiscent of the one that eventually hounded Cardinal Law out of Boston 10 years ago.
There are key differences in their cases: Cardinal Law was under fire for direct actions he took as a bishop, while Cardinal Brady is being pressured for his inaction as a priest some 35 years ago. But the arc of the criticism is remarkably similar.
Like Cardinal Brady, Cardinal Law was initially firmly resolute in his refusal to step down, saying his resignation would solve nothing. But the drumbeat got louder and more persistent.
Cardinal Brady slams BBC over child abuse program
IRELANDDigital Spy
By Andrew Laughlin
Catholic primate Séan Brady has today accused the BBC of making "seriously misleading and untrue" allegations against him in a documentary.
Aired on BBC Northern Ireland last night (May 1), This World documentary The Shame of the Catholic Church focused on the Church's handing of clerical sex abuse allegations in the 1970s.
Cardinal Brady has resisted calls for him to resign as the primate of all-Ireland after This World claimed that he had names and addresses of those being abused by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth, but had not passed the details on to police or parents.
Dr Brady said that the BBC's allegations against him were "seriously misleading and untrue". He also said that the documentary-makers had set out to "deliberately exaggerate and misrepresent" his role in the scandal.
Kenny: Not for me to determine who should lead Church
IRELANDIrish Examiner
Friday, May 04, 2012
Taoiseach Enda Kenny is again refusing to be drawn on whether the Primate of All Ireland Cardinal Seán Brady should resign over his handling of abuse allegations against Father Brendan Smyth in the 1970s.
The Tánaiste, a number of ministers and other senior political figures on both sides of the border have all urged Cardinal Brady to consider his position.
Social Protection Minister Joan Burton is the latest member of the Government to call on the Cardinal to consider his position over his failure to inform civil authorities about the abuse allegations against Fr Smyth.
However Mr Kenny today reiterated his position that given his role as the head of Government, it is not for him to make such a call.
Head of Irish Church has 'lost his moral credibility'...
IRELANDDaily Mail (United Kingdom)
Head of Irish Church has 'lost his moral credibility' and must resign over failure to warn parents about paedophile, say fellow priests
Pressure is building on the head of Ireland's Catholic Church to resign over accusations he failed to warn parents their children were being sexually abused.
A BBC documentary broadcast this week said Cardinal Sean Brady was given, in 1975, the names and addresses of children being abused by paedophile Brendan Smyth during a Church investigation but had failed to act to ensure their safety.
'Considering the damage done by that awful man Brendan Smyth, considering the repercussions, one has to say that unfortunately the Cardinal has lost his moral credibility,' Father Vincent Twomey told national broadcaster RTE.
Bishop to assist Cardinal Brady a possibility
IRELANDIrish Examiner
Friday, May 04, 2012
Speculation is growing that the Vatican may appoint a Bishop to assist Cardinal Sean Brady who is under growing pressure to stand aside over his role in the Fr Brendan Smyth affair.
The Catholic Press Office today rejected a report today that the Cardinal offered to step down two years ago.
However the office says that Cardinal Brady did request Episcopal support in 2010 and that request has now been reactivated.
Michael Kelly is deputy editor of the Irish Catholic:
"I think this current controversy, and the fall out from it, will make it very very clear to Rome that they do need to act swiftly and act decisively, and appoint a coagular archbishop.", he said.
Irish cardinal slams BBC for distorting role in abuse case
IRELANDCatholic News Agency
Armagh, Ireland, May 3, 2012 / 02:29 am (CNA).- Cardinal Sean B. Brady of Armagh, Ireland has denounced a BBC documentary on clerical abuse, saying he does not deserve blame for the results of a decades-old investigation in which he played a subordinate role.
“In the course of the program a number of claims were made which overstate and seriously misrepresent my role in a Church inquiry in 1975,” said Cardinal Brady, in response to a May 1 installment of “This World” entitled “The Shame of the Catholic Church.”
Cardinal Brady, who was not ordained as a bishop until 1995, issued a statement offering several clarifications about his role in the investigation of Norbertine priest Father Brendan Smyth, described in the BBC program.
Parts of the documentary, he said, gave viewers the impression “that because of the office I hold in the Church today I somehow had the power to stop Brendan Smyth in 1975.” But Cardinal Brady, who was not yet a bishop, had “absolutely no authority” over him.
Poll: Should Cardinal Seán Brady resign?
The Journal
[with poll]
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH’S top official in Ireland Cardinal Seán Brady is coming under increasing pressure to resign his position over allegations relating to the sexual abuse of children by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.
Survivors of clerical abuse have not been satisfied with the defence used by Brady that he had no power to stop Smyth back in 1975. The Cardinal also claims his role in the secret inquiry has been misrepresented and exaggerated.
Chief executive of Barnardos Fergus Finlay, who yesterday revealed he was abused as a child, has called on Brady to resign, stating he cannot offer solace to survivors. Meanwhile, the Vatican’s chief prosecutor Monsignor Charles Scicluna has said that the Irish church needs Cardinal Brady as he has “shown determination in promoting the protection of children”. He also argued that Ireland needed leaders who have “learned the hard way”.
Cardinal Brady meets with advisers amid growing pressure
IRELANDTV3
Cardinal Sean Brady is believed to have held meetings with his advisors last night, as pressure grows for his resignation.
Groups representing abuse survivors and a number of senior political figures have urged Cardinal Brady to consider his position, while the Taoiseach has said he should reflect on the allegations contained in a BBC documentary this week.
It claimed that the Cardinal knew of children at risk of abuse by paedophile priest Fr. Brendan Smyth in the 1970's, but failed to pass on the information.
NSS call for Northern Ireland child abuse investigation
NORTHERN IRELANDNational Secular Society
Posted: Fri, 04 May 2012
The National Secular Society has called on the Northern Ireland Justice Minister to launch an investigation into child abuse in the Catholic Church.
The NSS wrote to Justice Minister David Ford following a serious allegation made in the BBC's This World programme that a church inquiry in 1975 involving Brady, then a priest, was given the names and addresses of children abused by a serial paedophile priest. The programme claimed that this information was then not passed on to the families or the police, allowing the abuse to continue for at least another decade.
As a number of Catholic dioceses straddle the border, this is an issue that involves Northern Ireland too. In 2011 the NSS wrote to the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland urging him to consider and all Ireland investigation. That request as ignored but the National Secular Society says it now hopes the Justice Minister will take the necessary steps to ensure that individuals within the Catholic Church are not permitted to evade the law which others are expected to follow.
Cardinal faces calls to quit in abuse scandal
NORTHERN IRELANDDerry Journal
Published on Friday 4 May 2012
The head of Ireland’s Catholic Church is coming under increasing pressure to resign over a paedophile priest scandal.
The North’s Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness, is the latest high profile personality to comment on Cardinal Sean Brady’s apparent failure to act when alerted to abuse allegations when he was a young priest.
A television documentary this week revealed that, in 1975, a 14-year-old boy who had been sexually abused by paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth gave the then Fr Brady the names and addresses of other children who had been abused.
The programme makers claimed Fr Brady did not pass on the details to the police or parents.
Editor's Viewpoint: Is Sean Brady the right man for Ireland's Catholics?
IRELANDBelfast Telegraph
Thursday, 3 May 2012
While the BBC has produced fresh evidence against Cardinal Sean Brady, head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, in relation to the sex abuse carried out by notorious priest, Fr Brendan Smyth, the fundamental problem for the Primate is unchanged.
He may argue that he did nothing wrong and that his involvement in the interviewing of two victims of the priest were minimal and that he now regrets the culture of silence within the Church at that time. Yet many will feel that is a weak defence.
The Cardinal - who was then simply a priest - was given the names of children at risk from Fr Smyth and while he passed those on to superiors in the Church, neither the police nor the parents were informed.
Cardinal Brady may feel that it was not his role at that time to alert either, yet most right-minded people will regard it as shameful that a Christian organisation should continue to leave some of its most vulnerable flock - children - at risk from a paedophile.
Church needs 'fundamental clean-out'
The Irish Times
JIMMY WALSH
SEANAD REPORT: MARTIN CONWAY (FG) said that, as a practising Catholic, he was utterly amazed Cardinal Seán Brady had not tendered his resignation for the sake of all Catholics in this country who believed the church had a future. It was seriously regrettable that this gentleman, who no longer retained moral authority in regard to practising Catholics, had not yet made way for someone who was untainted in any shape or form with what had gone on in the past.
“In order for the church to survive and continue to play its important role in education and in other areas of this country, I think that we need a complete and fundamental clean-out and change at the top in terms of the senior management structure in the Catholic Church.”
David Norris (Ind) said the cardinal was under enormous pressure, but no one could gloat over that. As someone who regarded himself as a Protestant Catholic, he certainly did not do so.
Church rejects claim Brady offered to step down in 2010
The Irish Times
HARRY MCGEE, Political Correspondent
The Catholic Church has rejected reports that Cardinal Seán Brady was willing to resign two years ago over the Fr Brendan Smyth scandal but that the Vatican refused.
In a statement, a church spokesman said a news report to that effect today was "untrue".
The report in the Irish Independent seemed to be "confusing" an announcement by Dr Brady on May 17th, 2010 requesting Episcopal support, the statement said.
In that statement, Dr Brady said he had asked Pope Benedict for additional support for his work at Episcopal level.
Theologian calls on Cardinal Sean Brady to resign
IRELANDBBC News
One of Ireland's leading theologians has said Cardinal Sean Brady should resign as Catholic Primate of all-Ireland.
It follows fresh claims about a church inquiry into clerical child abuse.
Fr Vincent Twomey, a former Professor at Maynooth College, told RTE that Cardinal Brady has lost his moral authority.
Cardinal Brady is accused of failing to do enough when alerted to abuse allegations when he was a priest.
US lawyer abused by Brendan Smyth says Seán Brady should be criminally investigated
IRELAND/UNITED STATESRTE News
A victim of Fr Brendan Smyth has said Cardinal Seán Brady should not only resign but be investigated by secular authorities for possible criminal charges.
US lawyer Helen McGonigle was abused by the paedophile priest in the late 1960s in Rhode Island.
Speaking to BBC Ulster this morning, Ms McGonigle said she was "outraged" by Cardinal Brady's response to allegations in a BBC documentary broadcast this week.
Editor's Viewpoint: It is now time for Brady to resign
IRELANDBelfast Telegraph
Friday, 4 May 2012
The clamour for Cardinal Sean Brady to resign from his position as head of the Catholic Church in Ireland is gathering momentum with political leaders on both sides of the border joining in the criticism of his handling of child sex abuse cases.
His protests that he was just a functionary with no authority when he conducted interviews with children in 1975 who had been abused by notorious paedophile Father Brendan Smyth does not excuse his inaction then or subsequently.
He may have passed on the information to his superiors in the Church, but he also had a moral and legal duty to inform police and child protection agencies of the crimes committed against the children and fears that others were at risk - fears which were later realised. And it is incredible that he did not pursue the matter as he rose through the ranks of the Church or confess his role when Brendan Smyth was later unmasked.
It is also baffling why the RUC or the PSNI have never asked the Cardinal about what he knew about the child abuse crimes in the wake of Smyth's conviction.
Cardinal in abuse probe quit row
IRELANDBelfast Telegraph
Friday, 4 May 2012
Cardinal Sean Brady did not offer to resign when allegations of his role in a secret inquiry into abuse first broke two years ago, the Catholic Church said.
Amid deepening warnings from government circles that the cleric's position is untenable, the cardinal's spokesman denied claims that he wanted to quit over his role in investigations into paedophile Brendan Smyth.
The beleaguered cardinal has vowed to remain on despite revelations in a BBC documentary that he was aware at least five children were victims of Smyth and abuse reports were not passed to police and parents were not informed.
"No such offer of resignation was made," the cardinal's spokesman said.
No knee-jerk reaction, say police
NORTHERN IRELANDTyrone Times
Published on Wednesday 2 May 2012
There will be no knee-jerk decision on whether to launch a police investigation into the latest claims levelled against the Catholic Church, a senior commander in Northern Ireland has insisted.
Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Assistant Chief Constable George Hamilton said allegations made in a TV documentary on the secret internal Church inquiry in 1975 into paedophile priest Brendan Smyth would be reviewed by specialist detectives first.
Cardinal Sean Brady has faced mounting calls to resign over his role in the historic Church probe, primarily his apparent failure to alert the civil authorities about the abuse claims against Smyth.
Spike in calls to counselling services after Cardinal Brady programme
The Journal
AN OUT-OF-HOURS counselling service for victims of child abuse has said it noticed a significant increase in calls to its telephone line last night.
A spokesperson for Connect Counselling told TheJournal.ie that it expects the trend to continue over the coming days following revelations about Cardinal Seán Brady’s role in a secret 1975 inquiry into the abuse of children by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.
“We had a noticeable spike in calls,” he said. “That is generally the pattern when the issue of clerical child abuse is raised in the media.”
Connect is a HSE-funded, out-of-hours counselling service for any adult who experienced abuse, trauma or neglect in childhood. The service is also available to partners or relatives of people with these experiences.
No decision yet on investigation into claims against Cardinal Brady – NI commander
IRELANDIrish Independent
Thursday May 03 2012
A commander in Northern Ireland said a decision on whether to launch an investigation into the claims levelled against Cardinal Brady would not be taken until the evidence was fully assessed.
Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Assistant Chief Constable George Hamilton said a specialist team already investigating alleged institutional abuse in the region was reviewing the documentary to see if there was prima facie evidence that an offence had taken place.
He said officers would "do the right thing" based on where the evidence led them.
"For the last number of months there has been an investigation ongoing under an operation called Operation Charwell into alleged institutional abuse and this is really the context in which we will examine the material that was made available through the BBC documentary," he said.
Ruairi Quinn joins line of politicians calling for Cardinal Sean Brady to consider position
IRELANDIrish Independent
By Independent.ie and Press Association reporters
Thursday May 03 2012
EDUCATION Minister Ruairi Quinn has become the latest politician to call on Cardinal Sean Brady to consider his position, following allegations in a BBC documentary about a church inquiry into child abuse in the 1970s.
Earlier Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore and Fr Brian D’Arcy also commented on his position.
Mr Quinn said this stance was appropriate because Cardinal Brady is the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, which is the patron of 92pc of the 3,200 primary schools.
He said that the Catholic Church also should consider the appropriateness of having at its head someone who had ''failed spectacularly to protect children.''
Irish deputy PM says Cardinal should resign
IRELANDIOL (South Africa)
May 3 2012
By Conor Humphries
DUBLIN - Ireland's deputy prime minister said on Thursday he thought the head of the Irish Catholic Church should resign after a TV documentary reported the cleric had failed to warn parents their children were being sexually abused by a priest in 1975.
A BBC documentary broadcast on Tuesday said that Cardinal Sean Brady was given the names and addresses of children being abused by notorious paedophile Brendan Smyth during a Church investigation but had failed to act to ensure their safety.
“It is my own personal view that anybody who did not deal with the scale of the abuse that we have seen in this case should not hold a position of authority,” Deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore told parliament, when asked about Brady's response to the BBC programme.
Brady was rewarded for his obedience to Church rules. Now he should go
IRELANDHerald
By Garry O'Sullivan
Thursday May 03 2012
TWO years ago, when calls first started for Cardinal Brady to resign, the writing seemed on the wall for him.
At that point, the calls were made over his legalistic and perfunctory performance in 1975 in a Church Tribunal of Inquiry in which, among other explicit questions, a 14-year-old boy was grilled on whether he got enjoyment out of being abused by Fr Brendan Smyth.
I remember taking a phone call from a senior church adviser in the immediate circle around the Cardinal and even this adviser believed he should step down. But the Cardinal clung on.
The Vatican doesn't like to retire cardinals, the thinking being, if you allow senior management to be taken out, one day the mob will come for the CEO himself.
I didn't realise impact of child abuse -- Brady
IRELANDHerald
By Cormac Murphy
Thursday May 03 2012
CARDINAL Sean Brady has insisted he had not been fully aware of the impact of child abuse, even though he heard harrowing victim statements.
The pressure on the leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland to resign intensified today in the wake of revelations of his failure to shield children from paedophile Fr Brendan Smyth.
The priest defended not contacting gardai about the horrific details he heard from victim Brendan Boland and admitted he didn't realise the impact abuse had on children.
He said: "I knew chapter and verse of what was going on. I didn't have the awareness I now have of the impact that behaviour was having on those children."
Charity boss Finlay was abused by religious brothers
IRELANDHerald
By Alan O'Keeffe
Thursday May 03 2012
BARNADO'S chief executive Fergus Finlay was sexually and physically abused by two religious brothers when he was a boy. But his father took action.
Finlay (62) spoke publicly about the abuse for the first time to reject the notion that no-one understood what sex abuse was in the 1960s or 1970s or later.
"I knew what it was, I knew it was abuse. I told my father about it, he knew it was abuse, he knew exactly what action needed to be taken," he said. "As far as I know, the action taken ensured no other child was abused by the same person."e
Irish Cardinal rejects resignation calls over his role in abuse inquiry
IRELANDVatican Insider
Revelations by a BBC program that a boy abused by a priest gave a 1975 Irish Church Inquiry the names of several boys and girls being abused by the same priest have led to new calls for the resignation of Cardinal Brady, a notary at that inquiry. Many think he had an obligation then to inform the children’s parents, and blame him for not doing so
Gerard O'Connell
Rome
Ireland’s Cardinal Sean Brady has rejected new calls for his resignation following a BBC TV program which he accuses of “seriously misrepresenting” his role in a 1975 Church inquiry into the abuse of children by the late Father Brendan Smyth, a member of the Norbertine religious order, who abused very many children over forty years.
The BBC broadcast the program, “The shame of the Catholic Church” on May 1 in Northern Ireland and on May 2 in the UK.
It recalled how in 1975, the future cardinal, then a young priest, participated in a Church Inquiry that interviewed a 14 year-old boy, Brendan Boland, under oath of secrecy, without his parents being present. Based notes made by Brady then, the BBC revealed that the boy had not only described his own abuse by Smyth, but also gave the names and addresses of two other boys and two girls who suffered a similar fate.
Why do...
IRELANDIrish Central
Patrick Roberts
Why do Irish media lynch mob want Cardinal Sean Brady to resign?-- Brady acted in good faith at the time investigating a notorious pedophile priest
The harsh clamor for the resignation of Cardinal Sean Brady because of his alleged involvement in pedophile cover-up is a mistaken call.
Back in 1987 Brady was given a job to report to the-then Bishop of Cavan, Francis McKiernan on the findings of an ecclesiastical commission on the matter of Father Brendan Smyth, a known and notorious pedophile.
The BBC is now reporting that Brady was more than just a note taker as he claimed, but they do not dispute that he gave a full and complete account of the activities of Smyth to his superiors,
In other words all sides agree that Brady collected the information then passed it on to his superiors.
He acted correctly in that respect. Those higher up who ignored his report and allowed Smyth to keep on abusing did not obviously.
Martin calls on Brady to consider his position
IRELANDIrish Examiner
Thursday, May 03, 2012
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said today that Cardinal Seán Brady should consider his position as head of the Catholic church in
A BBC TV documentary recently revealed that information on victims of paedophile Fr Brendan Smyth was given to a Church investigation, but then-priest Brady did not pass the information on to parents or civil authorities.
Cardinal Brady claims that he was just a notetaker in that inquiry.
“I think Cardinal Brady should reflect on his position and consider his position, but that’s a matter obviously for the church,” said Mr Martin.
Bishop O’Reilly backs under fire Cardinal
IRELANDLongford Leader
Published on Thursday 3 May 2012
The Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnois has leapt to the defence of under fire Cardinal Sean Brady, saying he would be “very saddened” if the Primate is forced to resign.
Bishop Colm O’Reilly said the County Cavan native had given outstanding service to the church since his appointment as Ireland’s chief cleric almost 15 years ago.
In an interview with longfordleader.ie this morning (Thursday), Bishop O’Reilly also hinted that the
“At the present time, I would be full of regret if he (Cardinal Brady) weren’t to lead the Bishops’ Conference in June as he has given such high quality leadership to the Church,” said Bishop O’Reilly.
I knew what it was when it happened to me -- Finlay
IRELANDIrish Independent
By Edel O'Connell
Thursday May 03 2012
BARNARDOS chief Fergus Finlay has broken his silence about sexual abuse he experienced as a child in a bid to call for greater accountability from the Catholic Church.
The chief executive of the children's charity said the excuse that sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic priests was not dealt with properly in the past because it was "the culture of the time" is a "complete myth".
Mr Finlay (62) broke his silence about his own sexual abuse, which he said happened in 1961 when he was 11 years old and involved an "elderly man" whom he describes as "very religious".
He explained how he told his father about the abuse and his father "dealt with the issue" and ensured the man did not go on to abuse again.
Northern Ireland: Amnesty call for police investigation into potential cover-up of widespread child abuse
NORTHERN IRELANDAmnesty International
Amnesty International has called on the Police Service of Northern Ireland to launch an investigation into the potential cover-up of criminal acts of child abuse detailed in the BBC programme This Week, broadcast in Northern Ireland on May 1 2012.
The programme uncovered fresh information about serious acts of sexual abuse of children, living in Northern Ireland and the republic of Ireland, by Fr Brendan Smyth, and suggested that a number of people within the Church hierarchy in Ireland may have failed to report those crimes to the State authorities in either jurisdiction. It is alleged that, as a result, the abuse of these and other children continued for a further period of years.
Amnesty International has called for the PSNI to investigate whether Church officials and others failed to report the alleged criminal offences against children in Northern Ireland to the relevant authorities in Northern Ireland.
Irish American Deacon says Catholic church requires strong leadership
IRELAND/UNITED STATESIrish Central
By
MOLLY MULDOON,
Irish Voice Reporter
Published Thursday, May 3, 2012
Catholic priests in Ireland face a huge task in re-establishing Irish society's trust as a result of the child abuse scandal and will require strong leadership, according to an Irish American deacon currently studying in Ireland.
The son of an Irish emigrant, Shane Sullivan, 26, was ordained a deacon on Sunday, January 29 in Maynooth, Co. Kildare. A Minnesota native, he is to be ordained into the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Tuam on Sunday, June 3, in Tuam Cathedral, Co. Galway.
The January ceremony marked the last phase in the formation of Sullivan as a seminarian before his ordination into the priesthood in June.
NICK GARBUTT: Wounds caused by Catholic Church run deep
NORTHERN IRELANDNews Letter
Published on Thursday 3 May 2012
THE BBC report this week into the role of Cardinal Sean Brady, head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, in the 1975 investigation into paedophile priest Brendan Smith was profoundly disturbing, but should not come as a surprise.
In 2009 an independent report into child abuse by priests in the Archdiocese of Dublin concluded: “The Dublin Archdiocese’s preoccupations in dealing with cases of child sexual abuse, at least until the mid 1990s, were the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the Church, and the preservation of its assets. All other considerations, including the welfare of children and justice for victims, were subordinated to these priorities. The Archdiocese did not implement its own canon law rules and did its best to avoid any application of the law of the state”.
This, indeed, has been the pattern right across the world: in the USA, in Germany, in France, in Austria: wherever allegations of abuse have surfaced against priests the first instinct was to protect the church from scandal, and not young children from harm.
Church in crisis: At least 30 abused after Cardinal Brady didn’t report Smyth
IRELANDIrish Independent
Thursday May 03 2012
NOTORIOUS paedophile priest Brendan Smyth abused 30 or more children in the years after Cardinal Sean Brady failed to report his crimes, a former RUC officer has revealed.
Pressure was growing on Dr Brady to resign today as Barnardo’s chief Fergus Finlay joined the calls for him to step down.
Dr Brady’s position is becoming increasingly untenable after new revelations about his failure to report child rape allegations or inform the parents of some of Smyth's victims.
The cardinal admitted that there had been nothing to stop him going to civil authorities about accusations against the serial paedophile.
Victim of Smyth abuse after Cardinal Brady knew, calls for his resignation
IRELANDIrish Independent
By Independent.ie reporters
Thursday May 03 2012
A VICTIM of paedophile priest Brendan Smyth, who was abused after he was reported to Cardinal Sean Brady, today called for the All Ireland Primate to resign.
Sam Adair was abused after the then Fr Brady investigated Smyth, and fellow-victim Brendan Boland had given fives names and addresses of other abused children to the investigation.
He said that at the time of the inquiry Cardinal Brady was not just a note taker, but a skilled canon lawyer.
Speaking on RTE Radio’s Morning Ireland show, he called on the church to compensate Smyth’s victims.
Cardinal Brady under fire from Gilmore and Fr D’Arcy
IRELANDIrish Independent
By Independent.ie reporters
Thursday May 03 2012
CARDINAL Sean Brady is under increasing pressure today as Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore and Fr Brian D’Arcy have commented on his position.
Anyone who did not properly deal with allegations of child abuse against one of Ireland's most dangerous paedophiles should not hold a position of authority, Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore has said.
As Cardinal Sean Brady faced down calls to resign over his role in a secret inquiry into Brendan Smyth, Mr Gilmore said it was his opinion that senior clerics who did not act at the time should resign.
Cardinal Brady's duty in Smyth scandal
IRELANDIrish Independent
Thursday May 03 2012
Almost two decades after playing a major role in the collapse of the 1993-4 Fianna Fail/Labour coalition, the crimes of paedophile priest Brendan Smyth continue to cast a long shadow over Irish life.
Now, not for the first time, Cardinal Sean Brady, the leader of Ireland's Catholics, finds himself forced to explain his role in the Church's investigation into Fr Smyth's crimes.
In 1975, the then Fr Sean Brady was called upon to assist in the investigation of allegations of sexual abuse made by several children against Fr Smyth. His role in the investigation was a relatively junior one. He first acted as a notetaker in the interview of one of Fr Smyth's victims and subsequently interviewed a second child who had been identified as a victim of Fr Smyth in the first interview.
TRUE FAITH TAKES TIME TO BLOSSOM
IRELANDSunday World
Fr. Brian D'Arcy
FIFTY years ago when I first entered The Graan as a 17-year old novice, I tried to be the best I could be. I accepted that the 'old' Brian D'Arcy had to die and that I had to take a new name, Desmond Mary. I accepted that I had to leave my clothes to be locked up by the Novice Master and to put on instead borrowed clothes, habit and walk in sandalled feet as well.
I willingly got up in the middle of the night to pray and then went back to bed before getting up at 6am again. I took all those penances for granted. Silence was an essential part of life and I had to leave my family behind. I could not write to them; I could not speak to them if they came to church. I should not try to understand what was happening in the world. All of which was tough but I bought into it anyway. I knew it was what I had to do to be a priest.
Now I realise it was seriously damaging to me as a person. On one of those bleak days the Rector called me to his cell (room). The Rector had been in Africa and was very close to being made a bishop.
Cardinal Sean Brady ...
NORTHERN IRELANDBelfast Telegraph
Cardinal Sean Brady vows to remain as former RUC officer says failures let abuse go on
A former RUC officer who was close to the Brendan Smyth investigation has said that the paedophile priest would have been stopped from ruining countless other lives had he been reported to the authorities in 1975.
Cardinal Sean Brady yesterday vowed he would not resign as the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland despite new claims that he failed to act on evidence he obtained about clerical child abuse.
The beleaguered Primate — Ireland’s most senior cleric— remained defiant that he would not step down as church leader after mounting pressure grew following further alleged ‘cover up’ revelations rocked the church.
Cardinal Sean Brady 'was willing to resign' says D'Arcy
IRELANDBBC News
Irish priest Father Brian D'Arcy has said he believes Cardinal Sean Brady was willing to offer his resignation two years ago but the Vatican refused.
Fr D'Arcy was responding to a BBC This World programme which found that the cardinal failed to pass details of sex abuse to police or parents.
It said that in 1975, Cardinal Brady had the names and address of children being abused by Fr Brendan Smyth.
Smyth, a paedophile, continued to attack children for a further 13 years.
Best way Brady can help heal damage is to go
IRELANDBelfast Telegraph
Cardinal Brady's resignation would signal an acceptance that priests answer to society and not just to the Church, says Malachi O'Doherty
Most of us, if we had been priests of Fr Sean Brady's age in the 1970s, would have done as he did. The priest takes an oath of obedience to his bishop. Brady was assigned by his bishop to investigate a fellow cleric who was allegedly raping children and to report back.
He did everything that was expected of him by the only authority to which he had pledged himself answerable. He ascertained that the odious Brendan Smyth was, indeed, a paedophile priest making use of children for his sexual gratification. And he also spoke to two boys who had been abused in that way and he believed them. Then he swore them to secrecy.
All of this - in the practical, secular view of a later age - was what we would now call collusion in the cover-up of a vile crime. The manipulation of victims for the protection of an offender and of the institution to which that offender belonged.
But what was it in the mind of Sean Brady? It was the exercise of unquestioning obedience and loyalty. It was an outward expression of his faith in the power of the church to do the right thing.
Eamon Gilmore describes Brendan Smyth inquiry as a 'horrific failure'
IRELANDRTE News
Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has described the revelations about further cases of child abuse at the hands of Brendan Smyth as "another horrific episode of failure by senior members of the Catholic Church to protect children".
Mr Gilmore also told the Dáil that anyone who did not deal with the scale of the abuse revealed in this case should not hold a position of authority. However, he stressed that this was his own personal view.
Fianna Fáil's Willie O'Dea asked Mr Gimore about the Government's position on the future of Cardinal Séan Brady, who participated in investigation.
"As far as your question about the Government's position in relation to Cardinal Brady is concerned, let me say this, I have always believed in the separation of church and state,” Mr Gilmore said.
Brady's position 'untenable', says canon lawyer
IRELANDIrish Examiner
A prominent canon lawyer has said that he believes Cardinal Sean Brady's position as Primate of all Ireland is untenable.
It follows allegations in a BBC documentary that information on victims of Fr Brendan Smyth was given to a Church investigation in 1975 but was not passed on to victims' families or law enforcement authorities.
Cardinal Brady insists he was just a notetaker in the inquiry, and had no authority over Fr Smyth.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has urged him to "reflect" on the documentary.
Fr Tom Doyle, a renowned canon lawyer, also featured in the programme.
Fergus Finlay of Barnardo's speaks of abuse after Cardinal Brady revelations
IRELANDBBC News
The head of Barnardo's in Ireland has spoken publicly for the first time about being abused as a child.
Fergus Finlay says he felt he had to speak out while taking part in a debate about the BBC's This World programme which found Cardinal Sean Brady failed to pass details of sex abuse by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth to police or parents in 1975.
Cardinal Brady said he accepted he was "part of an unhelpful culture of deference and silence in society, and the Church, which thankfully is now a thing of the past".
Mr Finlay said a changed culture was not a proper explanation.
Editor's Viewpoint: Is this right man for Ireland's Catholics?
IRELANDBelfast Telegraph
Thursday, 3 May 2012
While the BBC has produced fresh evidence against Cardinal Sean Brady, head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, in relation to the sex abuse carried out by notorious priest, Fr Brendan Smyth, the fundamental problem for the Primate is unchanged.
He may argue that he did nothing wrong and that his involvement in the interviewing of two victims of the priest were minimal and that he now regrets the culture of silence within the Church at that time. Yet many will feel that is a weak defence.
The Cardinal - who was then simply a priest - was given the names of children at risk from Fr Smyth and while he passed those on to superiors in the Church, neither the police nor the parents were informed.
Cardinal Brady may feel that it was not his role at that time to alert either, yet most right-minded people will regard it as shameful that a Christian organisation should continue to leave some of its most vulnerable flock - children - at risk from a paedophile.
Fr D'Arcy: Brady may have already offered to resign
IRELANDIrish Examiner
Thursday, May 03, 2012
A prominent priest said today that he believes Cardinal Sean Brady was willing to offer his resignation two years ago, but the
Father Brian D'Arcy said that if he was in Cardinal Sean Brady's position now, he would find it difficult to continue - and has called on him to reflect.
It follows allegations in a BBC documentary that information on victims of Fr Brendan Smyth was given to a Church investigation, but was not passed on to parents or civil authorities by Cardinal Brady, who was then a priest.
Cardinal Brady says he was a notetaker in that inquiry and had no authority over Fr Smyth.
Fr D'Arcy said that the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland can't simply step down and he believes Cardinal Brady may have tried in the past.
Victim calls on Brady to resign
The Irish Times
CHARLIE TAYLOR
A man abused by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth in the years after he had been investigated by an inquiry team that include Cardinal Séan Brady has called on the Catholic primate to resign.
Sam Adair, a former resident of the Nazareth Lodge children's home in Belfast, also called on the current primate to offer compensation to Smyth's victims.
Pressure is growing on Cardinal Brady to step down following renewed allegations about his role in a church inquiry team investigating the Norbertine priest in 1975.
A BBC documentary broadcast on Tuesday evening revealed how, in 1975, when he was a priest in the diocese of Kilmore, Dr Brady was given the names and addresses of children who were abused by the serial child sex abuser Smyth.
Tánaiste: In my personal view, Cardinal Brady should resign
IRELANDIrish Examiner
Thursday, May 03, 2012
Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said that it is his personal view that the Catholic Primate of all Ireland, Cardinal Seán Brady, should resign in the wake of the latest abuse scandal.
It follows claims in a BBC TV programme that information on victims of paedophile Fr Brendan Smyth was given to a Church investigation, which Seán Brady was a member of, but was not passed on to parents or law enforcement authorities.
Cardinal Brady said he was just a notetaker in that inquiry.
In the Dáil today, the Tánaiste said that whether it was the 1970s or today, anybody with information about the rape of a child had and has a duty to pass it on.
Tanaiste enters abuse claims row
IRELANDBelfast Telegraph
Thursday, 3 May 2012
Anyone who did not properly deal with allegations of child abuse against one of
As Cardinal Sean Brady faced down calls to resign over his role in a secret inquiry into Brendan Smyth, Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore said it was his opinion that senior clerics who did not act at the time should resign.
"It is my personal view that anybody who did not deal with the scale of the abuse that we have seen in this case should not hold a position of authority," Mr Gilmore said.
The beleaguered Cardinal Sean Brady vowed to remain as Primate of All-Ireland on Wednesday after being forced for a second time in three years to account for his role in a 1975 Church inquiry into Smyth's attacks on children.
Tánaiste calls on Brady to stand down over abuse case
The Irish Times
IRISH TIMES REPORTERS
Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has today called on Cardinal Seán Brady to resign following renewed allegations concerning his role in an inquiry into allegations of clerical abuse by the paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth.
Speaking in the Dáil this morning, Mr Gilmore said he had always believed in the separation of Church and State.
“But is my own personal view that anybody who did not deal with the scale of the abuse we have seen in this case should not hold a position of authority,’’ he added.
The Tánaiste was replying to Fianna Fail TD Willie O’Dea, who said that every citizen had always had at least a moral obligation to report any abuse to the civil authorities.
Clerical abuse cover-up - Cardinal’s position is untenable
IRELANDIrish Examiner
Thursday, May 03, 2012
It seemed incredible in 1994 that the cover-up involving the paedophile activities of Fr Brendan Smyth had been going on for 19 years by the time it brought down the government of Albert Reynolds.
More than 17 years have passed and the public is presented with another facet of the cover-up, in which the safety of children was recklessly endangered by Church leaders who were more concerned about protecting their own institution from scandal than protecting vulnerable members of its flock.
For more than 37 years, Church figures have been passing the buck, and now it has come the full circle and has landed back on the desk of Cardinal Seán Brady. The latest controversy has been sparked by Tuesday night’s BBC documentary, This World: The Shame of the Catholic Church.
The programme provided details of the testimony of Brendan Boland, who was abused as an 11-year-old altar boy by Fr Brendan Smyth. The abuse went on for a couple of years before he reported it to a priest, who informed his parents and the Church authorities.
Resignation question what Cardinal Brady said previously
The Irish Times
What Cardinal Seán Brady previously said about “resigning”:
In December 2009 in the wake of the publication of the Murphy Report into child abuse in the archdiocese of Dublin, Cardinal Seán Brady was interviewed by RTÉ’s Northern editor Tommie Gorman:
Gorman asked: “If you personally – and let’s boil it down to how you personally would react – if you personally were made aware that through your lack of management skills or through other deficiencies that children had been abused because of that – that you had contributed in any way to that situation – what would you personally do?”
The law on disclosure then and now
The Irish Times
CAROL COULTER, Legal Affairs Editor
LAST WEEK Minister for Justice Alan Shatter published the Criminal Justice (Withholding of Information on Offences Against Children and Vulnerable Adults) Bill.
This creates a criminal offence of withholding information in relation to serious offences, including sexual offences, committed against a child or vulnerable person.
The Bill will make it mandatory for a person who has or receives such information to pass it on to the Garda, except in certain limited circumstances, including when the child requests the person not to.
In announcing the Bill the Minister said: “The primary purpose of this Bill is to close an existing loophole in our current law.”
'I was sexually abused in 1961'
The Irish Times
GENEVIEVE CARBERY
FERGUS FINLAY: BARNARDOS CHIEF executive Fergus Finlay yesterday spoke about his own childhood physical and sexual abuse by a religious brother.
Mr Finlay said he had not set out to make “a revelation” but was tired of listening to the excuse that the culture had changed.
The head of the children’s charity was speaking in relation to Cardinal Brady’s response to the BBC documentary on the church’s handing of clerical sex abuse allegations.
“It is a complete myth to suggest that everything is excusable on the basis that the culture somehow changed. There has never been a time that abuse wasn’t abuse,” he said on Newstalk radio. “I was sexually abused in 1961 and I was physically abused in 1963; I was 11 and 13 respectively at the time.”
Holy See rejects demands for Brady to resign
The Irish Times
PADDY AGNEW in Rome
VATICAN RESPONSE: SENIOR FIGURES in the Holy See yesterday were forthright in their defence of Cardinal Brady, rejecting calls for his resignation and arguing that he had acted correctly in 1975 when he took information from clerical sex abuse victim Brendan Boland.
Senior Vatican spokesman, Fr Federico Lombardi, referred The Irish Times to the statement issued yesterday by Cardinal Brady. In particular, he highlighted a statement made by the Vatican’s chief prosecutor, Msgr Charles Scicluna, to the makers of the BBC documentary, which was itself contained in Cardinal Brady’s statement.
In his statement Msgr Scicluna said that Fr Brady, now Cardinal Brady, “acted promptly and with determination to ensure the allegations being made by the children were believed and acted upon by his superiors”.
In his statement yesterday, Cardinal Brady said the above statement by Msgr Scicluna was made to the BBC Northern Ireland team six weeks before the broadcast of the programme but was “not acknowledged by them in any way”.
Amnesty wants PSNI to investigate any cover-up
The Irish Times
PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent
VICTIMS' RESPONSE: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL has called on the PSNI to investigate whether there was a cover-up of criminal acts of child abuse in Northern Ireland in light of the BBC’s This Week documentary.
Amnesty has asked the PSNI “to investigate whether church officials and others failed to report the alleged criminal offences against children in Northern Ireland to the relevant authorities in Northern Ireland”.
Failure to report a crime is an offence under section 5 of the Criminal Law (Northern Ireland) Act 1967.
No such legislation existed in the Republic in 1975, when the church abuse inquiries dealt with in the programme took place.
Abuse inquiry criticism no resigning matter - Brady
The Irish Times
GERRY MORIARTY, Northern Editor and CHARLIE TAYLOR
THE CATHOLIC primate, Cardinal Seán Brady, has said he is not contemplating resignation as a result of criticisms over how he handled sex abuse allegations against the paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth.
He said he would not stand down as primate following a BBC documentary that revealed how, in 1975, when he was a priest in the diocese of Kilmore, he was given the names and addresses of children who were abused by the serial child sex abuser Smyth.
This information, received from a Co Louth boy, Brendan Boland, who had been abused by Smyth, was not passed on to the parents of these children or to the Garda or police in the North.
Cardinal Brady, in an interview with The Irish Times yesterday and in comments to RTÉ, said he would not be resigning despite calls from a number of victims of abuse for him to stand down.
Cardinal claims BBC exaggerated his role in inquiry into sex abuse
The Irish Times
GERRY MORIARTY, DÉAGLÁN de BRÉADÚN and PATSY McGARRY
CARDINAL SEÁN Brady has criticised elements of a BBC documentary about clerical child sex abuse and complained that it “deliberately exaggerated” his role as a member of a 1975 church inquiry team charged with establishing the accuracy of abuse allegations.
The Catholic primate said he would not be standing down over the issue but acknowledged: “I was part of an unhelpful culture of deference and silence in society, and the church, which thankfully is now a thing of the past.”
Asked about the controversy, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said it was a personal matter for Cardinal Brady to “reflect on the outcome of the programme”.
Of the revelations, he said: “That’s why we published the legislation for child guidelines to be put in law. That’s why we make preparations for a referendum in respect of the protection of rights of children.
Sex abuse scandal continues to broil overseas
CANADANational Catholic Reporter
by Isabella R. Moyer on May. 02, 2012 NCR Today
I received an email this morning from a friend in Ireland. She was spitting mad after watching the BBC's "This World" last night. The program claimed that in 1975, Cardinal Seán Brady, the current primate of Ireland, had names and addresses of those being abused by Fr. Brendan Smyth but did not share these with either police or parents.
Brady was quick to issue a statement in his defence. While it contained a few sentences of sadness and regret, the bulk of the statement focused on deflecting the blame to others. His rationale included the fact that the present guidelines for reporting sexual abuse were not in place at the time. And even if they were, he would not have been considered a "designated person" according to present state guidelines and therefore not obligated to notify the legal authorities.
Here in Canada, the Western Catholic Reporter published a story this week called "Abuse crisis needs more talk." Sr. Nuala Kenny is a pediatrician and was a member of the five-member commission that examined sexual abuse at the Mount Cashel Orphanage and in the St. John's, Newfoundland, archdiocese in the late 1980s. She also helped develop the guidelines approved by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1992. These were the first national church guidelines in the world to deal with clergy sexual abuse.
Cardinal Brady, Catholic primate of all-Ireland failed to protect children from sexual abuse by a paedophile priest: A compilation
UNITED STATESPope Crimes & Vatican Evils...
Paris Arrow
It is very timely that on the first year anniversary of Opus Dei Golden Cow Blessed John Paul II, revelations have hit Ireland that Cardinal Brady, the Catholic primate of all-Ireland failed to protect children from sexual abuse by a paedophile priest and he is being asked to resign...just like Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law who confessed in public to transferring 80 pedophile priests from one parish to another but John Paul II did not bother to meet any of these pedophile priests or their victims. Cardinal Law resigned as Archbishop of Boston but John Paul II papal farted at us Bostonians by taking him to glorify him in Rome. That is why Blessed John Paul II is the Patron Saint of Pedophiles, Pederasts Rapists-Priests. With Cardinal Brady at its head,
This World: The Shame of the Catholic Church, BBC Two, review
IRELANDTelegraph (United Kingdom)
By Damian Thompson
10:02PM BST 02 May 2012
Paedophiles are cunning. It’s one of those things we’re always told but doesn’t sink in – until we’re confronted by the sort of detail revealed in last night’s BBC Two documentary This World: The Shame of the Catholic Church. Father Eugene Greene of Donegal liked to fiddle with altar boys, and he knew how to go about it. He’d invite one of them to drive his car. That’s pretty exciting when you’re 12 years old – and an honour, too, given that it’s Father’s car. “Both hands on the wheel!” said the priest. And then he’d reach over. I don’t think I need say any more.
There have been so many television exposés of Catholic clerical paedophilia that diminishing returns set in. Like doctors desensitised to suffering because it follows predictable patterns, we get used to the sight of middle-aged men choking back tears as they describe the residue of anger and shame left by their clerical abusers. That we’ve witnessed variants of this scene so often is, in itself, evidence of the depth and breadth of the Church’s paedophile undergrowth during the heyday of the abuse (at least of the abuse we know about), in the 1970s and 80s.
In the 21st century it takes an extremely well-made programme or one containing important new information to produce the degree of shock these crimes merit. The Shame of the Catholic Church ticked both boxes. In fact, what it told us about Cardinal Seán Brady, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, leaves us in little doubt that his position is hopelessly compromised.
Fr Greene’s child sex abuse featured in explosive BBC documentary
IRELANDDonegal Democrat
Published on Wednesday 2 May 2012
The extensive abuse of children in west Donegal by Father Eugene Greene was dealt with in an explosive documentary aired last night by the BBC.
The programme, “The shame of the Catholic Church” outlined how decades of clerical abuse and cover up left the Catholic Church in
Investigative journalist, Darragh MacIntyre, made claims on the programme in relation to Cardinal Sean Brady, the Primate of All Ireland, which have stunned the public.
The programme claimed that Cardinal Brady had the names and addresses of children who were being abused or were at risk of being abused by Ireland’s most notorious paedophile, Fr Brendan Smyth, but failed to ensure that they were protected.
Fergus Finlay reveals personal experience of child abuse
The Journal
BARNARDOS CEO FERGUS Finlay has revealed that he is a survivor of child abuse.
Finlay, a long-standing advocate of the rights of children, said that he had been both sexually and physically abused while a child in the early Sixties.
He was commenting amid ongoing controversy over the Primate of All Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady’s role in interviewing a victim of paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth during the 1970s.
Speaking on Newstalk’s The Right Hook, Finlay rejected the suggestion that Brady might have been prevented from acting on his knowledge of the abuse allegations because a different culture existed in Ireland when the interview took place.
Brady 'betrayed' by officials over abuse
IRELANDUTV
Published Wednesday, 02 May 2012
Cardinal Seán Brady has said he feels "betrayed" by the Church officials who had the authority to stop paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth.
The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland has claimed that officials failed to act on evidence he gave them about clerical child abuse - but he accepts that he "was part of an unhelpful culture of deference and silence in society, and the Church, which thankfully is now a thing of the past".
Cardinal Brady released a statement on Wednesday following new claims that he failed to act on allegations of abuse made against Fr Brendan Smyth.
He said suggestions that he led the 1975 Church inquiry were "seriously misleading and untrue" and that he was asked by Bishop Francis McKiernan of the Diocese of Kilmore to assist senior officials "on a one-off basis only".
Cardinal Brady added that he acted only as a "note-taker" during the inquiry.
May 2, 2012 news
Brady confronted over failure to protect children
BBC News
[with video]
2 May 2012 Last updated at 08:37 ET
Cardinal Brady, the Catholic primate of all-Ireland has been challenged over allegations that he failed to protect children from sexual abuse by a paedophile priest.
A BBC documentary found he was aware of the names and addresses of children being abused by a paedophile priest, Brendan Smyth, but did not ensure their safety.
The church points out that in 1975, "no state or church guidelines for responding to allegations of child abuse existed in Ireland
This World: The Shame of the Catholic Church is broadcast on Wednesday 2 May 2012 at 2100 BST on BBC Two. Watch on BBC iPlayer (UK
One in Four calls for explanation from Cardinal after 'failure to act' allegation
Irish Examiner
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
Abuse victims support group One in Four has said new allegations surrounding Cardinal Seán Brady's role in the Brendan Smyth abuse scandal require an explanation from the Cardinal.
Abuse victims support group One in Four has said new allegations surrounding Cardinal Seán Brady's role in the Brendan Smyth abuse scandal require an explanation from the Cardinal.
A BBC documentary last night claimed that information was given to an investigating team of clerics, including Cardinal Brady, in 1975 about other children who were being abused at the time, but that the information was not passed on.
The information uncovers how the Primate of All-Ireland was handed written names and addresses of three boys and two girls who were being abused or were at risk of being abused by Smyth in 1975 — 19 years before he was jailed in 1994. Four of the children were being abused, it later emerged. Two continued to be abused after the 1975 inquiry.
Despite having five names, Cardinal Brady only made contact with one of the children, a young man from Cavan. However, he did not tell the boy’s parents, gardaí, or the health authorities about the boy’s confirmation that he had been abused. He just sent a report to his bishop, who later barred Smyth from Confession and reduced his ability to complete public duties.
Cardinal 'misrepresented' on abuse
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
The Primate faced renewed demands to resign after it emerged a then 14-year-old victim of Smyth`s warned him in secret interviews that it was likely the late priest was abusing five other named children.
The Cardinal said his role in the inquiry has been deliberately exaggerated and misrepresented in a BBC documentary aired last night.
"I deeply regret that those with the authority and responsibility to deal appropriately with Brendan Smyth failed to do so, with tragic and painful consequences for those children he so cruelly abused," he said.
The Cardinal said his role in the inquiry has been deliberately exaggerated and misrepresented in a BBC documentary aired last night.
"I deeply regret that those with the authority and responsibility to deal appropriately with Brendan Smyth failed to do so, with tragic and painful consequences for those children he so cruelly abused," he said.
Victim of pervert priest...
Victim of pervert priest says cardinal Brady took notes as he told of vile assaults
By Greg Harkin
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
Between 1973 and 1975, altar boy Brendan Boland was among many victims of paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.
Aged just 14, he plucked up the courage to report his two years of horrific abuse at the hands of the Nobertine Order priest.
Aged just 14, he plucked up the courage to report his two years of horrific abuse at the hands of the Nobertine Order priest.
It wasn’t an easy thing to do for an adult, never mind a young teenage boy.
He approached a priest he could trust who worked with his local youth club; he in turn told Brendan’s parents and his Bishop.
Fr Greene’s child sex abuse featured in explosive BBC documentary
Donegal Democrat
Published on Wednesday 2 May 2012
The extensive abuse of children in west Donegal by Father Eugene Greene was dealt with in an explosive documentary aired last night by the BBC.
The programme, “The shame of the Catholic Church” outlined how decades of clerical abuse and cover up left the Catholic Church in Ireland
Investigative journalist, Darragh MacIntyre, made claims on the programme in relation to Cardinal Sean Brady, the Primate of All Ireland, which have stunned the public.
The programme claimed that Cardinal Brady had the names and addresses of children who were being abused or were at risk of being abused by Ireland
O'Gorman calls for admission that Brady 'failed to act appropriately'
Irish Examiner
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
The founder of One in Four has called for Cardinal Sean Brady to admit he failed to act appropriately by not reporting the abuse of children in 1975.
The founder of One in Four has called for Cardinal Sean Brady to admit he failed to act appropriately by not reporting the abuse of children in 1975.
A BBC documentary last night claimed Cardinal Brady was part of a team of clerics who were made aware of allegations of abuse by Fr Brendan Smyth in 1975, but failed to act.
However in a statement released before the programme aired last night, the Cardinal's spokesman said the then Father Brady was a notetaker for the inquiry, and it was not his responsibility to inform the civil authorities.
Fergus Finlay reveals personal experience of child abuse
The Journal
BARNARDOS CEO FERGUS Finlay has revealed that he is a survivor of child abuse.
Finlay, a long-standing advocate of the rights of children, said that he had been both sexually and physically abused while a child in the early Sixties.
He was commenting amid ongoing controversy over the Primate of All Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady’s role in interviewing a victim of paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth during the 1970s.
Speaking on Newstalk’s The Right Hook, Finlay rejected the suggestion that Brady might have been prevented from acting on his knowledge of the abuse allegations because a different culture existed in Ireland
Cardinal Brady will not resign over 'abuse failure'
BBC News
The Catholic primate of all-Ireland has said that he will not resign as Church leader despite revelations in the BBC's This World show.
It found Cardinal Sean Brady had names and addresses of those being abused by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.
However, he did not pass on those details to police or parents.
Cardinal Brady said he accepted he was part of "an unhelpful culture of deference and silence in society, and the Church".
Cardinal Brady says he had no power to stop Brendan Smyth
The Journal
RESPONDING TO ALLEGATIONS made by BBC’s This World last night, Cardinal Seán Brady has criticised the programme makers for overstating and “seriously misrepresenting” his role in a 1975 church inquiry into allegations of child abuse against notorious paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.
In the written statement, the top official of the Catholic Church in Ireland
Commenting on the secret inquiry in 1975, Brady said last night’s programme gave the impression that he was the only one to know of the allegations and that he “somehow had the power to stop Brendan Smyth”.
“I had absolutely no authority over Brendan Smyth. Even my Bishop had limited authority over him,” he said, after refuting notions that he led the investigation.
‘Did you ever do anything like this before?’...
Daily Mail (
‘Did you ever do anything like this before?’: Victim of child abusing priest tells of secret church investigation by Cardinal which swore him to silence
The leader of Ireland
Brady has already admitted he took notes of two children’s testimony of abuse in 1975 and gave the report to his bishop, not the police.
One of those children, now an adult, told the BBC he also alerted Brady to other children being abused by the same priest, Father Brendan Smyth, but Brady did not warn their parents of the danger.
Cardinal lacks the courage to resign, says Fr Smyth victim
UNITED STATES
Irish Examiner
Irish Examiner
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
One of Fr Brendan Smyth's victims said today that Cardinal Sean Brady is a flawed man for not speaking out in the past against the paedophile priest.
One of Fr Brendan Smyth's victims said today that Cardinal Sean Brady is a flawed man for not speaking out in the past against the paedophile priest.
Helen McGonigle - an Attorney based in Connecticut in the United States - suffered abuse at the hands of Brendan Smyth in the late 1960s in Rhode Island
She's calling on the Cardinal to resign and she believes he should face prosecution for not passing on the allegations he was aware of in 1975 to the civil authorities.
Ms McGonigle sais
Why the leader of Ireland's Catholics must quit
Daily Mail (
Mark Dooley
With each passing day, the crisis in the Irish Catholic Church grows deeper. In a BBC This World documentary screened on BBC Northern Ireland last night, it was claimed that, in 1975, the Catholic Primate of Ireland
‘In last night’s programme, Brendan Boland, who was abused by Smyth as a 12-year-old, claimed that information he gave to a Catholic Church inquiry team, which included Cardinal Brady, was not passed on to parents of the victims of the paedophile priest. Mr Boland from County Louth recounted how two of these victims, a boy from Belfast and a boy from Cavan, continued to be abused by the priest after the inquiry group, which comprised three priests, completed its work. The programme expands on information disclosed in 2010 about how the information compiled by the canonical inquiry in 1975, to which Mr Boland gave evidence, was not passed on to gardaí [police]. That disclosure led to calls for Cardinal Brady to resign’.
In response, a spokesman for the Cardinal said that ‘even according to today’s State and Church guidelines, Fr Brady [as he then was] would not be the person with responsibility for making a report to the civil authorities. That responsibility at the time rested with the only people who had the authority to stop Brendan Smyth, namely the Abbot of his Monastery’.
Cardinal Seán Brady under pressure over abuse list
The Guardian (
Henry McDonald, Ireland
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 2 May 2012
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 2 May 2012
The leader of the Catholic church in Ireland was under renewed pressure to step down after a television programme alleged that he failed to hand over a list of children being abused by the country's most notorious paedophile priest to the victims' parents or the police.
Cardinal Seán Brady faces fresh allegations that he failed to act after one of the victims gave him a list in 1975 of other children being abused by Father Brendan Smyth, who was convicted in 1994 of dozens of offences over a 40-year period.
While the Vatican appeared to be rallying around Brady, organisations representing the victims of clerical sex abuse in Ireland
The Irish justice minister, Alan Shatter, described the testimony of an abuse victim who claimed to have handed over a list of names and addresses of victims to Brady as "tragic and disturbing".
Brady resists resignation calls
Irish Examiner
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
The head of the Catholic Church inIreland
The head of the Catholic Church in
Even though he was part of the 1975 investigation into allegations Fr Brendan Smyth had attacked at least five children, the Cardinal blamed superiors for failing to stop the priest abusing children over the next 20 years.
Rejecting growing demands for his resignation, he declared: "There's no cloaking over or brushing under the carpet.
"We're not hiding behind procedures. There was no desire on my part to cover up, it was to make sure that this abuse stopped."
Police urged to probe priest abuse claims ...
The Independent (
Police urged to probe priest abuse claims following Cardinal Sean Brady's resignation refusal
Steven McCaffery
Wednesday 02 May 2012
Police should investigate the latest child sex abuse allegations to hit the Catholic Church, Amnesty International has said.
The human rights group said the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) should see if information on abuse was not acted upon.
This comes after Catholic Primate Cardinal Sean Brady defended himself against criticism, insisting he had passed on details of abuse to Church authorities, and claimed others had failed to act as he expected.
Amnesty'sNorthern Ireland
This comes after Catholic Primate Cardinal Sean Brady defended himself against criticism, insisting he had passed on details of abuse to Church authorities, and claimed others had failed to act as he expected.
Amnesty's
Irish Cardinal Rejects New Accusations on Pedophile Priest
The New York Times
By DOUGLAS DALBY
Published: May 2, 2012
Published: May 2, 2012
DUBLIN — The leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, said Wednesday that he would not resign despite new accusations that he failed 35 years ago to alert the parents of victims of a serial pedophile priest, allowing the abuse to continue for more than a decade.
The cardinal’s statement blamed other members of the church hierarchy for failing to act to halt the priest, Brendan Smyth.
“With others, I feel betrayed that those who had the authority in the Church to stop Brendan Smyth failed to act on the evidence I gave them,” Cardinal Brady said in his statement. “However, I also accept that I was part of an unhelpful culture of deference and silence in society, and the Church, which thankfully is now a thing of the past.”
Cardinal Brady resisted calls to step down two years ago over his role in a 1975 church investigation, saying his role had been confined to taking notes in interviews with a child who said he and others were being sexually abused by the priest, Brendan Smyth, a teacher, canon lawyer and bishop’s secretary. The cardinal maintains that his notes had been passed on to his superiors and it had been up to them to deal with the matter, given that in 1975, he had no major role in the church and no authority over Father Smyth.
Fresh claims put pressure on Cardinal Brady
BBC News
By Andy Martin
BBC News
Cardinal Brady became the Catholic Primate of all-Ireland in 1996, but the appointment that may define his career was made 21 years earlier.
As a Bishop's secretary in 1975, he was tasked with investigating a complaint of sexual abuse made against a fellow priest, the man who would later be exposed as Ireland's most prolific paedophile, Fr Brendan Smyth.
The manner in which he handled that internal church inquiry has come under intense scrutiny in a BBC 'This World' investigation.
Cardinal Brady response
The Irish Times
A SPOKESMAN for Cardinal Seán Brady said before the BBC programme was broadcast that he had not seen it, but wanted to make the following points.
The text is slightly edited:
* It is critical to note Cardinal Brady’s comment in 2009, that he would resign if by his action children were put at risk, was specifically in response to a question about if he was a bishop with overall responsibility for dealing with allegations . . . but . . . in 1975, he was a priest who was asked by his own bishop to record evidence . . . Fr Brady had no authority over Brendan Smyth . . . It would be disingenuous to report the 2009 quote in any other way.
* Even today, in the State’s own guidelines for responding to allegations of abuse against children, it is the “Designated Person” in the organisation who has responsibility for reporting the matter to the civil authorities, not the person who first receives or notes the details of the allegation, as Fr Brady did in 1975.
'We were assured there would be no recurrence of the abuse which I and other victims had suffered'
The Irish Times
PATSY McGARRY
How Church's handling of clerical child abuse led to court cases decades later
1973 Norbertine priest Fr Brendan Smyth began his abuse of schoolboy Brendan Boland (12). It continued for two years.
Early 1975 Brendan Boland spoke to a priest in his home town of
March 1975 Fr Seán Brady was asked by Bishop McKiernan to conduct a canonical inquiry into the two allegations involving Smyth. The then Fr Brady was a 35-year-old teacher at St Patrick’s College, Cavan, and part-time secretary to Bishop McKiernan. Brady also held a doctorate in canon law.
Details of abuse given to inquiry, says victim
The Irish Times
GERRY MORIARTY, Northern Editor
A VICTIM of late paedophile priest Brendan Smyth has stated he gave information to a Catholic Church inquiry team that included Fr Seán Brady – now Cardinal Brady – about how Smyth had abused other children.
Brendan Boland (51), from Co Louth, said this information was not passed on to the parents of these children, two of whom continued to be abused by the serial child sex abuser.
Smyth continued to abuse one particular
Details of this abuse and how such details were not passed on to the children’s parents or to gardaí are contained in a BBC’s This World documentary, The Shame of the Catholic Church, broadcast last night on BBC Northern Ireland. It is to be rebroadcast tonight on BBC 2.
Pope should have made Irish visit after abuse claims
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
The Pope himself should have come to Ireland
The call came from a contributor to a radio debate in the wake of last night's revelations that Cardinal Sean Brady knew of cases of abuse by a priests like Father Brendan Smyth.
A BBC investigation found that Cardinal Brady, the primate of all-Ireland, had the names and addresses of those being abused by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth, but did not ensure their safety.
The investigation centres on a secret church inquiry in 1975 when a 14-year-old boy, Brendan Boland was questioned about abuse.
The call came from a contributor to a radio debate in the wake of last night's revelations that Cardinal Sean Brady knew of cases of abuse by a priests like Father Brendan Smyth.
A BBC investigation found that Cardinal Brady, the primate of all-Ireland, had the names and addresses of those being abused by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth, but did not ensure their safety.
The investigation centres on a secret church inquiry in 1975 when a 14-year-old boy, Brendan Boland was questioned about abuse.
Timeline: Reports into clerical sex abuse claims in Ireland
BBC News
The latest claims about Cardinal Sean Brady in a BBC investigation come after numerous reports into clerical sex abuse in Ireland
October 2005 The Ferns Report, an Irish government inquiry, found that successive bishops had failed to adequately protect children from abuse in the Wexford diocese.
It uncovered more than 100 allegations of sexual abuse by priests and said the allegations were made against 21 priests who had been working in the diocese between 1966-2002.
May 2009 The Ryan Report found that sexual and psychological abuse was "endemic" in Catholic-run industrial schools and orphanages in Ireland
Brady criticises BBC over abuse allegation programme
The Irish Times
CHARLIE TAYLOR and GERRY MORIARTY
Catholic primate Séan Brady has today seriously criticised a BBC television programme which focused on the church's handing of clerical sex abuse allegations.
Dr Brady said allegations made against him in the BBC This World documentary, The Shame of the Catholic Church, were "seriously misleading and untrue" and claimed the programme makers set out to "deliberately exaggerate and misrepresent" his role in events.
According to the programme, which was broadcast on BBC Nothern Ireland last night, a Catholic Church inquiry team that included the then Fr Brady failed to pass on allegations of abuse to parents of some of the vicims of the paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth in 1975.
Brendan Boland recalls abuse by Father Brendan Smyth
BBC News
[with video]
2 May 2012 Last updated at 04:10 ET
Brendan Boland was 11 years old when he was sexually abused by Fr Brendan Smyth.
Back in 1975, he reported the abuse to Fr (now Cardinal) Sean Brady and two other priests, hoping to end the abuse of him and others. After giving evidence to them he was sworn to secrecy.
Cardinal Brady signed two reports about the abuse of Boland and another boy and passed them on to his bishop, but the police were never informed.
It was not until 1994 that Smyth was convicted of dozens of offences against children over a 40-year period.
Cardinal Brady revelations: reaction
BBC News
As the BBC's This World documentary offers fresh revelations about the failure of the Irish Catholic primate Cardinal Sean Brady to protect children from abuse, Church representatives, politicians and victims of clerical abuse respond.
Senior Vatican prosecutor Monsignor Charles Scicluna
"My first point is that Fr Brady was a note taker in 1975, he did what he should have done. He forwarded all the information to the people that had the power to act.
"My first point is that Fr Brady was a note taker in 1975, he did what he should have done. He forwarded all the information to the people that had the power to act.
My second point is that in the interest of the Church in Ireland , they need to have Cardinal Brady as the archbishop of Armagh because he has shown determination in promoting child protection policies. You need to have leaders who have learned the hard way and are determined to protect children.
They have learned because they have realised that you have to act immediately.
Maeve Lewis, One in Four
"It will be heartbreaking for survivors to realise that their suffering could have been avoided if only action had been taken.
"It will be heartbreaking for survivors to realise that their suffering could have been avoided if only action had been taken.
While on paper the Church now has good child protection practices, this documentary casts a shadow on the credibility of Cardinal Brady as a leader of the new policy. Although the times were very different then, it is unimaginable that any adult had such knowledge and failed to act"
Cardinal Brady 'failed to act on sex abuse claims'
BBC News
[with video]
New revelations about the failure of the Catholic primate of all-Ireland to protect children from abuse have been uncovered by the BBC's This World show.
It found Cardinal Sean Brady had the names and addresses of those being abused by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth, but did not ensure their safety.
The investigation centres on a secret church inquiry in 1975 when a 14-year-old boy was questioned about abuse.
Smyth abused him and others in guesthouses on trips across Ireland
Cardinal Brady's statement in full
BBC News
Cardinal Sean Brady has issued his response to the BBC's This World documentary, The Shame of the Catholic Church.
Here is the full text of his statement.
"On Tuesday 1 May 2012, the BBC 'This World' series broadcast a programme entitled 'The Shame of the Catholic Church' on the BBC Northern Ireland network. In the course of the programme a number of claims were made which overstate and seriously misrepresent my role in a Church Inquiry in 1975 into allegations against the Norbertine priest Fr Brendan Smyth.
"In response to the programme I wish to draw attention to the following:
"Six weeks before broadcast (15 March 2012) I drew the attention of the programme makers to a number of important facts related to the 1975 Church inquiry into Brendan Smyth, which the programme failed to report and which I now wish to restate for all other media who report on this matter:
"To suggest, as the programme does, that I led the investigation of the 1975 Church Inquiry into allegations against Brendan Smyth is seriously misleading and untrue. I was asked by my then Bishop (Bishop Francis McKiernan of the Diocese of Kilmore) to assist others who were more senior to me in this Inquiry process on a one-off basis only;
"The documentation of the interview with Brendan Boland, signed in his presence, clearly identifies me as the 'notary' or 'note taker'. Any suggestion that I was other than a 'notary' in the process of recording evidence from Mr Boland, is false and misleading;
Top Catholic faces new cover-up claims
9 News (
20:51 AEDT Wed May 2 2012
Shawn Pogatchnik
The leader of Ireland
Brady already has admitted he took written testimony in 1975 from two abused teenage boys and gave the report to his bishop, not the police.
The revelations became public after victims sued Brady and the church for damages and won confidential settlements.
One of those now-adult children, Brendan Boland, told the BBC he also alerted Brady to five other children being abused by the same priest, but Brady didn't tell their parents of the danger.
New allegations emerge on Brady's role in child sex abuse inquiry
TV3
New allegations have been made about Cardinal Sean Brady's role in a child sexual abuse inquiry in 1975.
In a BBC documentary, a man who was abused by paedophile priest Fr. Brendan Smyth as a child, claimed he told a church inquiry about other children who were at risk, but the allegations were not acted on.
The programme claimed that the parents of the children at the centre of the new allegations were never informed that they were at risk.
Cardinal Brady rocked by pervert cleric cover-up claims
By Greg Harkin
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
Even 15 years after his death, the malign shadow of Fr Brendan Smyth still haunts the Catholic Church
Cardinal Sean Brady has insisted that he would not resign after fresh claims about his role in the cover-up of abuse by serial paedophile cleric Brendan Smyth.
Cardinal Sean Brady has insisted that he would not resign after fresh claims about his role in the cover-up of abuse by serial paedophile cleric Brendan Smyth.
Documents suggest that he was an investigator into paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth — and not a just a note taker.
The BBC allegations also include claims Cardinal Brady and the Church failed to pass on any warnings to other victims of Smyth, despite accepting the evidence of a victim.
Cardinal Brady profile
By John Mulgrew
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
Cardinal Sean Brady has been Primate of All Ireland since 1996 and in the last few years he has been forced to deal with the damaging fallout from two reports into clerical abuse within the Catholic Church in Ireland
Two major reports into child sex abuse were published — the Ryan report, which looked at abuse within Catholic institution, and the Murphy report which examined a massive abuse cover-up in theDublin
Two major reports into child sex abuse were published — the Ryan report, which looked at abuse within Catholic institution, and the Murphy report which examined a massive abuse cover-up in the
In 2010 it emerged that Cardinal Brady had been present when children signed vows of silence over allegations of abuse made against paedophile priest Father Brendan Smyth in 1975.
He had previously apologised for his role in mishandling the case of the serial child abuser.
Brendan Smyth - the evil predator who sparked crisis in Church and State
By Fergus Black
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
Leering chillingly into the camera lens, the face is that of perhaps the country’s best-known and most notorious of paedophile priests.
The fallout from the controversy surrounding the case of serial sexual predator Fr Brendan Smyth continues to resound almost 15 years after his death.
A member of the Norbertine Order, Smyth’s litany of abuse going back to the 1940s led to the collapse of a government and the exposure of widespread clerical child sex abuse in the Catholic Church.
The fallout from the controversy surrounding the case of serial sexual predator Fr Brendan Smyth continues to resound almost 15 years after his death.
A member of the Norbertine Order, Smyth’s litany of abuse going back to the 1940s led to the collapse of a government and the exposure of widespread clerical child sex abuse in the Catholic Church.
Born in Belfast
Brady did not act on Smyth sex abuse claim says victim
Irish Independent
By Greg Harkin and Independent.ie reporters
Wednesday May 02 2012
CARDINAL Sean Brady is expected to release a full statement later today after refusing to resign over fresh claims about his role in the cover-up of abuse by serial paedophile cleric Brendan Smyth.
Previously unseen documents suggest that he was an investigator into paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth -- and not a just a note taker.
Brendan Boland, from Co Louth, a victim of serial abuser Brendan Smyth, when he was just 12, told how information about his evil deeds was not passed onto parents of other victims by the inquiry team and two boys continued to be abused after the inquiry.
The allegations are made in a BBC documentary which also revealed that a hand-written note for a church inquiry into Smyth in 1975, at which the then Fr Brady was present, puts him in an investigative role.
Brady clear on child sex abuse claims – Vatican prosecutor
Irish Independent
By Lyndsey Telford
Wednesday May 02 2012
THE Vatican 's chief investigator has insisted that Ireland
Monsignor Charles J Scicluna (pictured) defended Cardinal Sean Brady's role in secret interviews with a 14-year-old victim in 1975 in which he was told it was likely the late priest was abusing five other named children.
The Vatican cleric, from the Holy See's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, claimed the Primate of All-Ireland had fulfilled his duties by referring information on child abuse to his seniors.
Three years ago when explosive allegations about Cardinal Brady's role in the canon inquiry into Smyth emerged he said he would resign if he found his actions or failings had led to another child being abused.
O'Gorman: Cardinal's defence 'just not good enough'
Irish Examiner
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
The founder of One in Four, Colm O'Gorman, has said that Cardinal Sean Brady's defence of his role in a 1975 abuse inquiry is "just not good enough".
The founder of One in Four, Colm O'Gorman, has said that Cardinal Sean Brady's defence of his role in a 1975 abuse inquiry is "just not good enough".
Cardinal Brady responded today to allegations in a BBC documentary, saying it that a number of claims were made which seriously misrepresented his role in the 1975 church inquiry into Fr Brendan Smyth.
In a statement, Cardinal Brady highlighted a number of "important facts" to the programmes makers six weeks before the broadcast, most notably that the suggestion that he led the inquiry into the abuse allegations were "seriously misleading and untrue".
In a statement, Cardinal Brady highlighted a number of "important facts" to the programmes makers six weeks before the broadcast, most notably that the suggestion that he led the inquiry into the abuse allegations were "seriously misleading and untrue".
Cardinal Brady said that he was a "notary" at the meeting which was outlined in the programme, adding that even now the guidelines currently in place to ensure child protection in the Irish state make clear that the person "who first receives and records the details of an allegation of child abuse in an organisation that works with children, is not the person who has responsibility within that organisation for reporting the matter to the civil authorities".
Brady confronted over failure to protect children
BBC News
[with video]
2 May 2012 Last updated at 08:37 ET
Cardinal Brady, the Catholic primate of all-Ireland has been challenged over allegations that he failed to protect children from sexual abuse by a paedophile priest.
A BBC documentary found he was aware of the names and addresses of children being abused by a paedophile priest, Brendan Smyth, but did not ensure their safety.
The church points out that in 1975, "no state or church guidelines for responding to allegations of child abuse existed in Ireland
Cardinal Sean Brady defies calls to quit over abuse cover-up claims
The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland
The Primate faced renewed demands to resign after it emerged a then 14-year-old victim of Smyth's warned him in secret interviews that it was likely the late priest was abusing five other named children.
The Cardinal said his role in the inquiry has been deliberately exaggerated and misrepresented in a BBC documentary aired last night.
"I deeply regret that those with the authority and responsibility to deal appropriately with Brendan Smyth failed to do so, with tragic and painful consequences for those children he so cruelly abused," he said.
The Primate faced renewed demands to resign after it emerged a then 14-year-old victim of Smyth's warned him in secret interviews that it was likely the late priest was abusing five other named children.
The Cardinal said his role in the inquiry has been deliberately exaggerated and misrepresented in a BBC documentary aired last night.
"I deeply regret that those with the authority and responsibility to deal appropriately with Brendan Smyth failed to do so, with tragic and painful consequences for those children he so cruelly abused," he said.
New claims over Cardinal Brady's role in sex abuse inquiry
BBC News
A BBC investigation has uncovered fresh revelations about the role of the Catholic primate of all-Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, in the failure to protect children from child abuse.
The BBC's This World programme revealed he had the names and addresses of children who were being abused or were at risk of abuse by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth but failed to ensure they were being protected.
The investigation centres on a secret church inquiry in 1975 when a 14-year-old was questioned about abuse.
In 1975, Cardinal Brady was a priest and teacher in
Brady under pressure as sex abuse victims talk of cover-up
Irish Independent
By Greg Harkin
Tuesday May 01 2012
CHURCH leaders will come under renewed pressure when a BBC documentary is screened tonight outlining the widespread cover-up of clerical sex abuse here.
'This World: The Shame of the Catholic Church' is said to focus on Cardinal Sean Brady's role in an ecclesiastical investigation that led to the silencing of two victims of Fr Brendan Smyth.
Victims of paedophile priests in Co Donegal will also tell how the church failed to deal with complaints which allowed one cleric to continue to abuse more victims.
The broadcaster has refused to comment on the investigation by reporter Darragh Mac Intyre but BBC sources say the documentary has "powerful testimony" from abuse victims.
Brady 'betrayed' by officials over abuse
UTV
Published Wednesday, 02 May 2012
Cardinal Seán Brady has said he feels "betrayed" by the Church officials who had the authority to stop paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth.
The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland
Cardinal Brady released a statement on Wednesday following new claims that he failed to act on allegations of abuse made against Fr Brendan Smyth.
He said suggestions that he led the 1975 Church inquiry were "seriously misleading and untrue" and that he was asked by Bishop Francis McKiernan of the Diocese of Kilmore to assist senior officials "on a one-off basis only".
Cardinal Brady added that he acted only as a "note-taker" during the inquiry.
New allegations emerge on Brady's role in child sex abuse inquiry
TV3
New allegations have been made about Cardinal Sean Brady's role in a child sexual abuse inquiry in 1975.
In a BBC documentary, a man who was abused by paedophile priest Fr. Brendan Smyth as a child, claimed he told a church inquiry about other children who were at risk, but the allegations were not acted on.
The programme claimed that the parents of the children at the centre of the new allegations were never informed that they were at risk.
Cardinal Brady rocked by pervert cleric cover-up claims
By Greg Harkin
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
Even 15 years after his death, the malign shadow of Fr Brendan Smyth still haunts the Catholic Church
Cardinal Sean Brady has insisted that he would not resign after fresh claims about his role in the cover-up of abuse by serial paedophile cleric Brendan Smyth.
Cardinal Sean Brady has insisted that he would not resign after fresh claims about his role in the cover-up of abuse by serial paedophile cleric Brendan Smyth.
Documents suggest that he was an investigator into paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth — and not a just a note taker.
The BBC allegations also include claims Cardinal Brady and the Church failed to pass on any warnings to other victims of Smyth, despite accepting the evidence of a victim.
Cardinal Brady profile
By John Mulgrew
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
Cardinal Sean Brady has been Primate of All Ireland since 1996 and in the last few years he has been forced to deal with the damaging fallout from two reports into clerical abuse within the Catholic Church in Ireland
Two major reports into child sex abuse were published — the Ryan report, which looked at abuse within Catholic institution, and the Murphy report which examined a massive abuse cover-up in theDublin
Two major reports into child sex abuse were published — the Ryan report, which looked at abuse within Catholic institution, and the Murphy report which examined a massive abuse cover-up in the
In 2010 it emerged that Cardinal Brady had been present when children signed vows of silence over allegations of abuse made against paedophile priest Father Brendan Smyth in 1975.
He had previously apologised for his role in mishandling the case of the serial child abuser.
Brendan Smyth - the evil predator who sparked crisis in Church and State
By Fergus Black
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
Leering chillingly into the camera lens, the face is that of perhaps the country’s best-known and most notorious of paedophile priests.
The fallout from the controversy surrounding the case of serial sexual predator Fr Brendan Smyth continues to resound almost 15 years after his death.
A member of the Norbertine Order, Smyth’s litany of abuse going back to the 1940s led to the collapse of a government and the exposure of widespread clerical child sex abuse in the Catholic Church.
The fallout from the controversy surrounding the case of serial sexual predator Fr Brendan Smyth continues to resound almost 15 years after his death.
A member of the Norbertine Order, Smyth’s litany of abuse going back to the 1940s led to the collapse of a government and the exposure of widespread clerical child sex abuse in the Catholic Church.
Born in Belfast
Brady did not act on Smyth sex abuse claim says victim
Irish Independent
By Greg Harkin and Independent.ie reporters
Wednesday May 02 2012
CARDINAL Sean Brady is expected to release a full statement later today after refusing to resign over fresh claims about his role in the cover-up of abuse by serial paedophile cleric Brendan Smyth.
Previously unseen documents suggest that he was an investigator into paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth -- and not a just a note taker.
Brendan Boland, from Co Louth, a victim of serial abuser Brendan Smyth, when he was just 12, told how information about his evil deeds was not passed onto parents of other victims by the inquiry team and two boys continued to be abused after the inquiry.
The allegations are made in a BBC documentary which also revealed that a hand-written note for a church inquiry into Smyth in 1975, at which the then Fr Brady was present, puts him in an investigative role.
Brady clear on child sex abuse claims – Vatican prosecutor
Irish Independent
By Lyndsey Telford
Wednesday May 02 2012
THE Vatican 's chief investigator has insisted that Ireland
Monsignor Charles J Scicluna (pictured) defended Cardinal Sean Brady's role in secret interviews with a 14-year-old victim in 1975 in which he was told it was likely the late priest was abusing five other named children.
The Vatican cleric, from the Holy See's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, claimed the Primate of All-Ireland had fulfilled his duties by referring information on child abuse to his seniors.
Three years ago when explosive allegations about Cardinal Brady's role in the canon inquiry into Smyth emerged he said he would resign if he found his actions or failings had led to another child being abused.
June 17, 2012
'It's not enough'
IRELAND
Cork News
Cork victims of Church abuse react to Brady apology
Priests involved in the cover up of clerical child abuse need to be held accountable before apologies are made, according to the director of Cork’s Sexual Violence Centre. As the Catholic Primate of All Ireland Cardinal Seán Brady apologised for the clergy’s failure to respond to victims of child sexual abuse at the International Eucharistic Congress yesterday, Thursday, Mary Crilly said she believed that Church authorities are “still minding themselves”.
“While I welcome the apology, change needs to come from within. They can say sorry for what happened and say that it will never happen again but it's not enough… action is needed,” she told the Cork News. “There are still people out there that aren't being listened to and still don’t see changes. There needs to be real transparency and action taking.”
Ms Crilly stated that this included the resignation of Cardinal Brady, who last month distanced himself from an inquiry into one of the country's most dangerous paedophiles. It was claimed that Dr Brady failed to warn the parents of victims, or the gardaí or police after hearing allegations of abuse against Fr Brendan Smyth. However, the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland has continually insisted that responsibility for the scandal does not lie with him.
Cork News
Cork victims of Church abuse react to Brady apology
Priests involved in the cover up of clerical child abuse need to be held accountable before apologies are made, according to the director of Cork’s Sexual Violence Centre. As the Catholic Primate of All Ireland Cardinal Seán Brady apologised for the clergy’s failure to respond to victims of child sexual abuse at the International Eucharistic Congress yesterday, Thursday, Mary Crilly said she believed that Church authorities are “still minding themselves”.
“While I welcome the apology, change needs to come from within. They can say sorry for what happened and say that it will never happen again but it's not enough… action is needed,” she told the Cork News. “There are still people out there that aren't being listened to and still don’t see changes. There needs to be real transparency and action taking.”
Ms Crilly stated that this included the resignation of Cardinal Brady, who last month distanced himself from an inquiry into one of the country's most dangerous paedophiles. It was claimed that Dr Brady failed to warn the parents of victims, or the gardaí or police after hearing allegations of abuse against Fr Brendan Smyth. However, the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland has continually insisted that responsibility for the scandal does not lie with him.
Pope Benedict must apologise
IRELAND
Irish Independent
Editorial
Thursday June 14 2012
Yesterday's meeting between the papal legate Cardinal Marc Ouellet and victims of clerical sex abuse was a welcome but insufficient gesture of contrition on the part of the papacy. During a visit to Lough Derg, Cardinal Ouellet stated that Pope Benedict XVI had asked him to come to the pilgrimage site to ask God's forgiveness for the abuse of children by priests and religious.
"I have come here with the specific intention of seeking forgiveness, from God and from the victims, for the grave sin of sexual abuse of children by clerics", Cardinal Ouellet said in his homily.
He went on to say that: "In the name of the church, I apologise once again to the victims, some of whom I have met here in Lough Derg."
While we welcome Cardinal Ouellet's visit to Lough Derg and his apology, the church still hasn't gone far enough. In order to begin to undo the damage caused by clerical child sex abuse, it is the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI, who must apologise.
Irish Independent
Editorial
Thursday June 14 2012
Yesterday's meeting between the papal legate Cardinal Marc Ouellet and victims of clerical sex abuse was a welcome but insufficient gesture of contrition on the part of the papacy. During a visit to Lough Derg, Cardinal Ouellet stated that Pope Benedict XVI had asked him to come to the pilgrimage site to ask God's forgiveness for the abuse of children by priests and religious.
"I have come here with the specific intention of seeking forgiveness, from God and from the victims, for the grave sin of sexual abuse of children by clerics", Cardinal Ouellet said in his homily.
He went on to say that: "In the name of the church, I apologise once again to the victims, some of whom I have met here in Lough Derg."
While we welcome Cardinal Ouellet's visit to Lough Derg and his apology, the church still hasn't gone far enough. In order to begin to undo the damage caused by clerical child sex abuse, it is the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI, who must apologise.
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