By Pamela Duncan and Elaine Keogh
The Irish Times
March 16, 2010
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0316/1224266351677.html
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| Paedophile priest Brendan Smyth leaving Limavady Courthouse, Co Derry, after extradition proceedings to the Republic in 1997. Helen McGonigle, a US attorney abused at age six by Smyth in Rhode Island, said Cardinal Sean Brady's assertion that he should not be judged by today's standards was "absolutely wrong". |
VICTIMS OF paedophile priest Brendan Smyth yesterday called for the resignation of Cardinal Sean Brady over revelations that he was involved in a canonical investigation into two cases of sexual abuse involving the paedophile priest.
A woman who was first abused by Smyth in 1974 – the year before the investigation took place – and who was abused until 1979 said the “right thing” would be for Cardinal Brady to resign.
The woman, who wished to be identified only as “Samantha”, is now married and lives in the northeast.
“I was 13 when it began in 1974 and it went on for five years. If he had done something, my life could have been so different. The next four years of torture and hell was completely avoidable, and wouldn’t have happened if he had done what he was supposed to do and protect children,” she told The Irish Times .
She said she would like to speak to Cardinal Brady “face to face” to find out whether he believed he had done the wrong thing. But she remarked: “I would not sit in a room with that man knowing he allowed me to be raped and abused by his inactions . . .
“Sean Brady asked a 14-year-old to sign a form of secrecy – that’s what all abusers do . . . to ask a child to sign [up to secrecy] is to collude in what Smyth had been doing.
“I think those who protect abusers are worse than the abusers,” she added.
“Samantha” also spoke on RTE’s Liveline yesterday, commenting: “All I know is that, I could have been saved, and I know two people who’ve died by suicide as a direct result of what Brendan Smyth did to them, and they could have been saved as well.
“There is no excuse for not saving somebody like me and how many more of me from being raped and abused, and having photographs taken of her body, and everything that goes with that.
“I want to be sure that my children and my grandchildren are safe in the future, and the only way to do that is for people to be brought to account for anything that they may not have done or that they may have done . . . If there’s no consequences, how can we move on with a new agenda?”
Sam Adair, who was abused by Smyth between 1974 and 1979, said Cardinal Brady had no option but to resign. “The fact of the matter is that this man knew that children were being sexually abused in 1975 and he was ushered in to have them silent, and had this in writing and in pledges to him, so he therefore facilitated the sexual abuse of children right throughout Northern Ireland, and I’m sure across the South of Ireland, so there’s just nowhere else for Cardinal Brady to go but to resign.”
Helen McGonigle, a US attorney who was first abused by Smyth at the age of six while he was based in Rhode Island, said the Cardinal’s assertion that he should not be judged by today’s standards was “absolutely wrong”.
“He’s coming to this issue with unclean hands, unclean hands that are borne by the bloodstains of many victims and victims who have committed suicide or attempted to commit suicide.
“He allowed that to happen over the past 35 years, and the only reason he has shown us his unclean hands is because he’s been pressured to do so by the lawsuit that’s pending in the High Court . . . and now he has to respond.”
Ms McGonigle, who has a case pending in the US Superior Court in the State of Rhode Island against the diocese of Providence and Holy Trinity Abbey in Co Cavan, said Dr Brady had sat on information about the cleric for 35 years, during which time more children had been abused.
“He has absolutely no excuse for that, no excuse whatsoever, other than that he’s protecting the hierarchy of the church itself and not protecting children or people,” she said.
Jeff Thomas said he was just seven years old when he was abused by Smyth in Rhode Island over a period of three to four months. He said he could not excuse Cardinal Brady for his inaction.
“Anybody that has the responsibilities to oversee the flock of the children I think has the professional responsibility when he misses a call this big . . . really, how can you exonerate him?
“I just think about all the kids that could have been saved from this monster – and he was a monster,” he said.
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