Embattled Cardinal Asks Ireland to Pray for Me, Dana Kennedy, AOL News, March 17, 2010

Embattled Cardinal Asks Ireland to "Pray for Me"

By Dana Kennedy
AOL News
March 17, 2010

http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/embattled-cardinal-asks-ireland-to-pray-for-me/19403671

Cardinal Sean Brady, the leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland, said, "I am ashamed that I have not always upheld the values that I profess and believe in." He's pictured here last month.
Photo by Christopher Simon

During a homily on St. Patrick's Day, the leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland apologized for his role in the cover-up of the country's worst pedophile priest, saying he felt "ashamed." He also asked the congregation to "pray for me."

Speaking at Armagh's grand cathedral in Northern Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady's remarks today were markedly more humble and self-reflective than some of the more defensive postures taken by the Vatican as sexual abuse scandals engulf the church in Europe.

"This week, a painful episode from my own past has come before me," said Brady during his annual St. Patrick's Day sermon.

"I have listened to reaction from people to my role in events 35 years ago," he said. "I want to say to anyone who has been hurt by any failure on my part that I apologize to you with all my heart. I also apologize to all those who feel I have let them down. Looking back, I am ashamed that I have not always upheld the values that I profess and believe in."

On Sunday, Brady admitted that when he was a priest and a teacher in 1975, he was present at two meetings where two children said they had been sexually abused by the Rev. Brendan Smyth. The children were required to sign oaths of secrecy. Brady did not report the abuse, he said, because he did not feel it was his responsibility.

Smyth was arrested in 1994 on 74 counts of child sexual abuse, after he spent an estimated 40 years abusing children in Ireland and the U.S.

Brady ended his homily by saying, "Pray for those who have been hurt. Pray for the church. Pray for me."

Andrew Madden, Ireland's most well-known sexual abuse victim and crusader, told the The Irish Times he was unimpressed with Brady's remarks.

"The notion of careful reflection is nonsense. He's had 35 years to reflect on what he did then," said Madden, who went public with his abuse in 1995.

"If the Catholic Church in Ireland is to be led by a man who accurately reflects it in its current state," he said, "then maybe it's only right and fitting that it should be led by a man who has covered up the sexual abuse of children by a priest."

Diarmuid Martin, Ireland's reform-minded archbishop of Dublin, spoke about the Brady case for the first time on Tuesday night. While he refused to call for Brady's resignation, he said more investigations into clerical sexual abuse in Ireland may be necessary.

"I've always said it is not my job to tell people to resign or tell people to stay," said Martin. "I've never done that. People should be accountable, render an account of what they have done. Resignations are a personal matter."

The revelations about Brady have rocked Ireland, which is still reeling from the results of two clerical sex-abuse investigations last year. Irish survivor support groups and some political leaders have called for Brady's resignation.

Brady, however, says he will not resign unless Pope Benedict XVI requests it.