IRELAND
International Business Times
By Bindu Jacob | September 10, 2014
Cardinal Seán Brady resigned from his position as the leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland, and the Vatican accepted his resignation.
Cardinal Seán Brady resigned from the position as leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland, and the Vatican accepted his resignation. Cardinal Seán Brady resigned on an account of child sex abuse scandals by clerical and his attempt to hide the case
Cardinal Seán Brady’s term was beset with clerical child sex abuse scandals — and he confessed that he helped cover up one case.
In 1975, when Brady was a young priest, he swore two teenage sex abuse victims to secrecy during an internal church meeting. The two boys were one of the countless victims of the infamous paedophile priest, Fr. Brendan Smyth.
Cardinal Brady, however, resigned on age grounds — and not for his sex abuse cover-up. The canon law states that a bishop must resign from service as soon as he turns 75 years old, and the Pope decides whether to accept it. The Cardinal turned 75 last Aug. 16 and his resignation was approved by Pope Francis just within a month, which was deemed unusually fast.
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