Cardinal Brady "Looking Forward" to Retirement

The Anglo-Celt
August 15, 2014

http://www.anglocelt.ie/news/breakingnews/articles/2014/08/15/4032023-cardinal-brady-looking-forward-to-retirement/

Cardinal Sean Brady has tendered his resignation to Pope Francis in advance of his 75th birthday tomorrow (Saturday, August 16) and says he is ‘looking forward to the day’ when it is accepted.

However, a victim of clerical abuse says to allow Dr Brady to retire without sanction over his role in the Fr Brendan Smyth abuse would be part of a “cover up”.

The resignation letter is in accordance with Canon Law [church law] ahead of his 75th year.

The Archbishop of Armagh Diocese Dr Brady’s statement, who faced criticism over his role in the Church’s handling of abuse claims against paedophile priest Fr Smyth, comes after clerical sexual abuse victims called on Pope Francis to accept his resignation immediately.

In a statement this morning (Friday, August 16), the Primate of All Ireland and canon lawyer said he offered his resignation to the pope last month with the ‘anticipation’ his birthday.

“I look forward to the day when my resignation will be accepted and when Archbishop Eamon will take over as Archbishop, a position for which, I believe, he is excellently prepared,” he said.

“Last month I offered my resignation to Pope Francis in accordance with the requirement of Canon Law. I did so in anticipation of my seventy-fifth birthday which I will celebrate tomorrow.”

Dr Brady said that as soon as Pope Francis accepts his resignation Archbishop Martin will become Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland.

“Archbishop Eamon has been warmly welcomed into the diocese. He has worked tirelessly in getting to know its priests, religious and lay faithful, as well as by becoming involved in every aspect of the life of the Church in Armagh and beyond,” he said.

The cardinal had been heavily criticised over the handling of the Brendan Smyth child abuse affair in which Dr Brady received reports of the abuse and passed them on in confidence to church hierarchy.

One of Smyth’s victims, Brendan Boland, recently published a book on the ordeal called Sworn to Silence, which contains the handwritten record of the oath sworn by the then 14-year-old Mr Boland to keep the inquiry secret.

In 2012, Dr Brady apologised “without hesitation” to Mr Boland for the abuse he suffered at the hands of Smyth.

To allow Dr Brady “retire naturally as if he did nothing wrong is part of the cover-up” of his role in the Smyth saga, Brendan Boland said.

A church spokeswoman said Dr Brady was not aware of a Garda investigation in the mid-1990s into the activities of Fr Smyth. “If he had been approached by the gardai he would have made a statement.”

Mr Boland, however, said he has no desire to meet Dr Brady. “It’s not going to happen. I’d feel like an altar boy again. He would control everything. I don’t want him to be in control anymore.”

At the time of the inquiry into Smyth's abuse back in 1975 Dr Brady was a 36-year-old canon lawyer, a teacher at St Patrick’s College in Cavan town and part-time secretary to then Bishop of Kilmore, Francis McKiernan, who appointed him to the inquiry.

Smyth was jailed in Belfast in 1994 for abuse of children perpetrated in the North in the 1980s. In 1997 he was jailed in the Republic and died later that year. He abused children over a 40-year period.