IRELAND
The Association of Catholic Priests
Sorrows
Cardinal Sean Brady, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, is seventy-two years of age now. He seems to be a kindly man, a good man. But he is under fire. Calls for his resignation have been made following a recent television documentary about child abuse in Ireland forty years ago, when the then Father John Brady was the notary at an enquiry into allegations of abuse against a paedophile priest. Father Brady took his notes and passed then up the chain of authority and that was his part in the matter. But the matter was so serious, that it now looks as if he was remiss in his duty to ‘do more’ than simply record conversations and interviews.
The Vatican is resisting calls for his resignation, but the latest news says that an auxiliary bishop will be appointed to assist the Cardinal, with automatic right of succession. That looks like a subtle and silent way of easing the Cardinal aside. I think it would have been better for the Cardinal to resign as a symbolic act of sorrow for the failings of the Church in this matter, and for his own smaller role in that failure.
The Church is looking at the issue from its own point of view, and is still practising the habit of self-defense. Having just watched the documentary, I now see the issue through the eyes of the victims in this story, with all the desolation that has dogged their lives since they were abused in their earliest years. The documentary did not attempt to attack or ‘kick’ the Church in any way. It was a fair reporting of events of long ago. The resignation of the Cardinal, if done properly, could be a great act of sorrow on behalf of the Church in Ireland.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.