IRELAND
National Catholic Reporter
Sarah Mac Donald | Sep. 8, 2016
One of Ireland’s best known priests, who is one of six clerics in the Irish church censured by the Vatican in recent years, claimed that a number of women who were sexually abused by notorious pedophile Norbertine Fr. Brendan Smyth, later committed suicide because of their ordeal.
In an interview with the Irish magazine, Hot Press, popular BBC radio presenter Passionist Fr. Brian D’Arcy, says he personally knew “young women, who took their own lives because of what Brendan Smyth did to them.”
Criticizing the mentality of protecting the institution which dominated the church’s approach to child abuse in the past, D’Arcy suggested these women “could have been saved, if it [the abuse by Smyth] had been reported earlier.”
“They could have been saved from abuse, which often leads to suicide. Abuse is an entirely evil concept, with consequences,” he told the magazine. “The church was one major part of society that did not do what it should have done to prevent abuse. Society and the church are both learning, but we should never take anything for granted — abusers will find a way around the system to continue their evil ways.”
He was highly critical of Cardinal Sean Brady, the retired Primate of All Ireland, over his role as a 35-year-old priest in a canonical investigation into allegations of child abuse made by two teenage boys against Smyth in 1975.
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