IRELAND
UTV
Published Wednesday, 02 May 2012
Cardinal Seán Brady has said he feels “betrayed” by the Church officials who had the authority to stop paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth.
The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland has claimed that officials failed to act on evidence he gave them about clerical child abuse – but he accepts that he “was part of an unhelpful culture of deference and silence in society, and the Church, which thankfully is now a thing of the past”.
Cardinal Brady released a statement on Wednesday following new claims that he failed to act on allegations of abuse made against Fr Brendan Smyth.
He said suggestions that he led the 1975 Church inquiry were “seriously misleading and untrue” and that he was asked by Bishop Francis McKiernan of the Diocese of Kilmore to assist senior officials “on a one-off basis only”.
Cardinal Brady added that he acted only as a “note-taker” during the inquiry.
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