Victim: Cardinal 'Failed to Fulfil Duty'

By Aoife Finneran
Irish Sun
May 5, 2012

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/irishsun/irishsunnews/4298927/Victim-Cardinal-failed-to-fulfil-duty.html

Under fire ... Brady faces media

Fight ... Helen with childhood pic

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.

The youngster also provided names and addresses of other children who were abused by Smyth but the information was not passed on to the victims' parents or authorities.

Yesterday Ms McGonigle claimed Brady failed to fulfil his duty as a human being and insisted: "Brady needs to be investigated and if the evidence is there he needs to be prosecuted and charged.

"He's saying he fulfilled his function under canon law, but his duty as a theologian and a human being was to protect children.

"The analogy I draw is if you see a burning building with children inside and you say you've called your boss and told them.

"If you see that no one is coming to rescue the children, wouldn't you call the fire department and the police?"

Her comments came as Social Protection Minister Joan Burton insisted the cardinal's position is "not really sustainable".

Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore, Education Minister Ruairi Quinn, Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin have all called on the cardinal to consider his position.

Yesterday, Ms Burton, below, said: "I think that Cardinal Brady ought to reflect on his position. He is a religious person, he has a responsibility.

"He was a man in his middle 30s at the time who was a doctor of divinity.

"You could say perhaps at that stage people like that were tremendously naive, but he was highly educated. He also held a position in a school.

"I think he would really have to ask himself as a man, as a person who would be concerned for the welfare of other people, what was it in the system that failed to at least bring those matters to the attention of the parents of those children and at least protect those children?"