Brady Says He Will Not Resign over Handling of Abuse Case

By Irish Times
Gerry Moriarty And Charlie Taylor
May 2, 2012

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0502/breaking8.html

Brendan Boland, who was abused by Fr Brendan Smyth, told Catholic Church officials, including Cardinal Sean Brady, in 1975 of other victims of the priest. Photograph courtesy BBC

Catholic primate Sean Brady today criticised a BBC television programme which focused on the church's handing of clerical sex abuse allegations and insisted he would not be resigning.

Dr Brady said allegations made against him in the BBC This World documentary, The Shame of the Catholic Church, were "seriously misleading and untrue" and claimed the programme makers set out to "deliberately exaggerate and misrepresent" his role in events.

[Click here for Cardinal Sean Brady's full statement]

According to the programme, which was broadcast on BBC Nothern Ireland last night, a Catholic Church inquiry team that included the then Fr Brady failed to pass on allegations of abuse to parents of some of the vicims of the paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth in 1975.

Brendan Boland from Co Louth, who was abused by Smyth as a 12-year-old, claimed that information he gave on to the inquiry team was not forwarded on to gardai.

Dr Brady, who served as a notary for the inquiry team, said today the programme makers had overstated the part he played. "It is my view that the ‘This World’ programme has set out to deliberately exaggerate and misrepresent my role in these events," he said in a statement this afternoon.

"In the course of the programme a number of claims were made which overstate and seriously misrepresent my role in a Church Inquiry in 1975 into allegations against the Norbertine priest Fr Brendan Smyth," he added.

"The commentary in the programme and much of the coverage of my role in this inquiry gives the impression that I was the only person who knew of the allegations against Brendan Smyth at that time and that because of the office I hold in the Church today I somehow had the power to stop Brendan Smyth in 1975," he said.

"I had absolutely no authority over Brendan Smyth. Even my Bishop had limited authority over him. The only people who had authority within the Church to stop Brendan Smyth from having contact with children were his Abbot in the Monastery in Kilnacrott and his Religious Superiors in the Norbertine Order.

"I trusted that those with the authority to act in relation to Brendan Smyth would treat the evidence seriously and respond appropriately. I had no such authority to act and even by today’s guidance from the State I was not the person who had the role of bringing the allegations received to the attention of the civil authorities. I was also acutely aware that I had no authority in Church law in relation to Brendan Smyth or any other aspect of the inquiry process," he said.

The cardinal said he had been in touch with the programme-makers six weeks before it was broadcast in order to draw them to a number of issues, including his role in the inquiry team.

While criticising the programme, Dr Brady admitted the had not acted in the best interest of clerical sex abuse victims. "With others, I feel betrayed that those who had the authority in the Church to stop Brendan Smyth failed to act on the evidence I gave them. However, I also accept that I was part of an unhelpful culture of deference and silence in society, and the Church, which thankfully is now a thing of the past.

"With many others who worked regularly with children in 1975, I regret that our understanding of the full impact of abuse on the lives of children as well as the pathology and on-going risk posed by a determined paedophile was so inadequate," he added.