BishopAccountability.org

Head of Irish Church Has 'Lost His Moral Credibility' and Must Resign over Failure to Warn Parents about Paedophile, Say Fellow Priests

Daily Mail
May 4, 2012

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2139604/Cardinal-Sean-Brady-resign-failure-warn-parents-paedophile-Brendan-Smyth.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

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

Brendan Smyth was convicted in 1994 of 17 counts of child sex abuse

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.

'I think for the good of the church, I'm afraid I am of the opinion that he should resign.'

The Church in predominantly Catholic Ireland has been rocked by a series of reports of child sex abuse stretching back decades and of church leaders' complicity in covering them up.

Similar scandals have come to light in the United States and in Europe, opening the Vatican to accusations it had tolerated a culture of silence over the problem.

Twomey was adding his voice to similar calls by groups representing victims of abuse and government ministers, led by deputy prime minister Eamon Gilmore who called the revelations 'another horrific episode of failure by senior members of the Catholic Church to protect children.'

Brady, who last year agreed to a legal settlement over the administering of an oath of secrecy to a teenage victim during the 1975 investigation, said the documentary was seriously misleading and that he did not see it as a resigning matter.

In a statement, he said that the programme had exaggerated his role in the inquiry and that he was only a note-taker in the investigation and not the 'designated person' responsible for reporting the matter to the civil authorities.

He had trusted his superiors to deal with the matter, he added, saying the Church did not fully understand the impact of the abuse at the time.

Brady would be the most senior Church figure to resign over the abuse scandals were he to step down.

Lawmakers said on Friday that Brady could help the Church move on by stepping down.

'Brady resigning would be a powerful force for healing and a great gesture for victims and his Church. He's not the problem but he can lead the solution,' Aodhan O Riordain, a member of the junior government Labour party said on twitter.




.


Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.