CARDINAL BRADY’S colleagues in the bishops’ conference were unaware until last weekend that he had conducted canonical investigations 35 years ago into the abuse of two children by Fr Brendan Smyth.
Nor were they told about the ongoing High Court action being taken personally against the Catholic primate by a woman who was 14 at the time of that investigation.
Sources last night indicated the earliest many of the bishops became aware of any of this was on Saturday last. Despite some discomfort and surprise among bishops at the weekend’s revelations, it is nevertheless expected they will publicly support Cardinal Brady over coming days.
Bishop of Kilmore Leo O’Reilly offered support yesterday in an interview on Northern Sound radio. “I don’t think that it is fair to leave the responsibility at one door and certainly at someone who was essentially a junior official doing what was not much more than a secretarial job, on that basis I don’t think he should resign”, he told the station.
Asked in the US yesterday whether Cardinal Brady should step down, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said that while not au fait with “the particular issues that are arising now” there should be “no ambiguity about the importance of child protection”.
He added: “I think obviously matters that are considered within the church’s authority have to be done so by the church authorities regardless of the fact that it was a very long time ago, 35 years ago.”
The Taoiseach was asked by reporters about criticism of his reaction to the Ryan report and suggestions at the time that he was content to let the church itself sort the matter out.
He was asked: “Would you be able to say now that a collar or the cloth would be no protection for people in relation to prosecution of these crimes when they occurred in future?”
Mr Cowen replied: “That has never been the case as far as I’d be concerned. Everyone is equal before the law but I’m just anxious to ensure that the State discharges its responsibilities. The church has its own issues to deal with as an institution and they should be dealt with in that context.”
Labour Party spokeswoman on social and family affairs Roisín Shortall said the cardinal was “hopelessly compromised by what has emerged over the weekend”.
She said “there should be a Garda investigation to determine whether or not the failure to report Fr Smyth’s crimes to the civil authorities was, itself, a criminal offence.
“I am advised that the administering of an oath requiring these children not to disclose the abuse to anyone else may also have constituted an offence.”
Yesterday Cardinal Brady said he would only resign if asked to do so by the pope. “I really played my part, the part I had 35 years ago as priest- recording secretary, to the best of my ability,” he told BBC Northern Ireland. “We are now judging the behaviour of 35 years ago by the standards we set today and I don’t think that’s fair, it does not apply to other sectors of society.”
He agreed he knew he was dealing with crimes in the canonical inquiry “but I did not feel it was my responsibility to denounce the actions of Brendan Smyth to the police”.
A woman who was serially abused by Fr Brendan Smyth for four years following that canonical inquiry conducted by Cardinal Brady in 1975, said yesterday “the right thing” for the cardinal to do was resign.
The woman, who wished to be identified only as 'Samantha', told The Irish Times, "I was raped, abused and had pictures taken of my body." She said two other schoolgirls Fr Smyth abused at the same time had since taken their own lives. "I was 13 when it began in 1974 and it went on for five years. If he [Cardinal Brady] had done something my life would have been so different," she said.
Maeve Lewis of the One in Four group said Cardinal Brady “has no option but to resign”. Ellen O’Malley-Dunlop, of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre concurred and asked: “We believe we now need inquiries into all dioceses in Ireland on the church’s handling of allegations of child sexual abuse.”
Seán Ó Conaill of the Voice of the Faithful Ireland group said the controversy caused by Cardinal Brady’s action was “a most serious matter and leaves the Irish Catholic Church without a leader in whom survivors especially can have full confidence”.
