Excerpt of a Letter to Abbot Kevin A. Smith, O.Praem.

By Rev. Bruno Mulvihill, O.Praem.
November 9, 1985

The main topic of conversation between those in training and me was the serious matter of Fr Brendan Smyth who apparently is not just travelling around in a Belfast-registered car but is also misusing children. This was well known as far back as 1964 when I was a novice and things have not got better. It is at present a cause of major scandal among the juniors: I brought the matter to the attention of the Abbot General and Abbot Mackin when I was in California [in August 1984, for the abbatial blessing when St. Michael's Priory became an abbey; see article]. The reaction of the Abbot General was: 'I do not believe it,' Abbot Mackin said he would look into the matter and take it up with you. I have also discussed the matter at length with the Pater Abbas of Kilnacrott, Abbot Noyens of Tongerlo, Belgium, who said he would monitor the situation even though he could not interfere with matters pertinent to an independent canonry even if it be a daughter canonry of his own abbey. Sooner or later this bubble will burst, child misuse is a dangerous matter. I feel very hurt that you refused to talk to me about Fr Brendan when we met in Postel Abbey [in Belgium]: you cut me off and asserted that Fr Brendan was a zealous priest who had done a lot of good work in many dioceses around the world and who had 'had a problem in the past.' You seem to think that this sexual orientation is a matter which one can lay off as easily as a shirt, this is a misguided approach. Over and above that, Father Brendan is a brash man who has wound you around his little finger: some fine day these children will have psychic problems which we cannot now foresee and may not want to be bribed into silence. It is not for any personal reason that I am documenting this now: should the bubble burst at any stage, then I have my documentation. My protest is timely, to have answered it by forbidding me to speak to particularly those members of the community who are genuinely concerned because they do not know if it is wise to bind themselves to a community where such a man can have free play is nothing short of being utterly irresponsible.

[Note from BishopAccountability.org: This letter was scanned from Chris Moore, Betrayal of Trust: The Father Brendan Smyth Affair and the Catholic Church (Dublin: Marino Books, 1995), pp. 216-17.]