IRELAND
Church 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.
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