By David Sharrock
The Times
March 15, 2010
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article7062387.ece
IRELAND -- The leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland said today that he would resign only if ordered to do so by the Pope over revelations that he did not report to police allegations made by two children against a paedophile priest.
Cardinal Seán Brady, the Primate of All Ireland, defended his role at a 1975 meeting where children abused by Father Brendan Smyth were made to take a vow of silence.
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| Cardinal Brady said that he did not feel it was his responsibility to denounce the actions of Brendan Smyth to the police Photo by Max Rossi |
The cardinal is facing a storm of protest about his behaviour 35 years ago, with campaigners on behalf of victims of clerical abuse arguing that he has lost his moral authority to lead the Church.
Colm O'Gorman, who founded the victims' support group One In Four, said that Dr Brady rose through the ranks in the Catholic Church hierarchy while Smyth continued to rape and abuse children for 18 years.
Asked why he did not see it as a moral obligation to ensure the police were alerted, the Catholic primate said today: "Yes, I knew that these were crimes, but I did not feel that it was my responsibility to denounce the actions of Brendan Smyth to the police."
He had helped to gather evidence for the Church to stop Smyth operating as a priest, and thereafter it was the responsibility of the relevant bishop and Smyth's religious order, he added.
"Now I know with hindsight that I should have done more, but I thought at the time I was doing what I was required to do.
"Not just that, but most effectively, I can tell you, I acted with great urgency to get that evidence and to produce it and I believed that in doing so I was following the most effective route to have this stopped and that was my main concern and always has been — the safety of children," he said.
Dr Brady said that child abuse was treated differently in the 1970s.
"There was a culture of silence about this, a culture of secrecy, that's the way society dealt with it."
Pressed on the calls for his resignation, he said: "I will only resign if asked by the Holy Father."
Asked if he had considered resigning he said: "Certainly not. I have heard other calls for me to stay. I have been very heartened by those calls, calls of support, to stay and to continue the work of addressing this most difficult problem.
"There are lots of calls here in Armagh, where I serve, in the form of phone calls and e-mails from priests and people around the country."
The Catholic primate has previously stated that bishops who were responsible for managing abuse cases, but who had failed to alert the authorities, should resign.
Today he said: "The fact is that, 35 years ago, I was not a manager, I was recording secretary with no decision-making power... I discharged my responsibilities then, which was to collect evidence... in church investigations, to determine what action the church itself would take against Brendan Smyth. I did that, I acted.
"We are now judging the behaviour of 35 years ago by the standards we set today and I don't think that is fair and it's not applied to other sectors of society."
He said that, within three weeks, church authorities withdrew Smyth's right to act as a priest. The move, however, did not prevent Smyth from targeting more children.
The cardinal — then a part-time secretary to the then Bishop of Kilmore, the late Bishop Francis McKiernan — posed questions and took notes during two meetings with children who he believed had been abused by Smyth.
Smyth's case rocked the Catholic Church in Ireland and brought down a government in 1994 because of a seven-month delay in extraditing him to Northern Ireland.
The prolific offender later admitted a litany of sex attacks on about 90 children in the North and South of Ireland over a 40-year period and was sent to jail, where he died in 1997.
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