IRELAND
BBC News
As the BBC’s This World documentary offers fresh revelations about the failure of the Irish Catholic primate Cardinal Sean Brady to protect children from abuse, Church representatives, politicians and victims of clerical abuse respond.
Senior Vatican prosecutor Monsignor Charles Scicluna
“My first point is that Fr Brady was a note taker in 1975, he did what he should have done. He forwarded all the information to the people that had the power to act.
My second point is that in the interest of the Church in Ireland, they need to have Cardinal Brady as the archbishop of Armagh because he has shown determination in promoting child protection policies. You need to have leaders who have learned the hard way and are determined to protect children.
They have learned because they have realised that you have to act immediately.
Maeve Lewis, One in Four
“It will be heartbreaking for survivors to realise that their suffering could have been avoided if only action had been taken.
While on paper the Church now has good child protection practices, this documentary casts a shadow on the credibility of Cardinal Brady as a leader of the new policy. Although the times were very different then, it is unimaginable that any adult had such knowledge and failed to act”
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