May 8, 2012
Martin Mallon (Ireland)
Martin's previous article
The
Irish news media has been full of the Cardinal Sean Brady/Fr Brendan Smyth story
due to further revelations, in the BBC programme “The Shame of the Catholic
Church”, about the then Father Brady’s role in the Fr Brendan Smyth case. In
1975 one boy, fourteen year old Brendan Boland, told Fr Brady and two other
priests that Smyth was abusing him and he named another two boys and three girls
who were also being abused, giving their names and addresses. Fr Brady got
confirmation from another boy, co-signed letters with the two boys individually
which swore both to secrecy, then passed the information to his bishop who had
asked him to investigate the affair.
Smyth
went on to abuse one of the boys for a number of years, then the boy’s sister
and four cousins into the late 1980s.
The parents’ of the second boy, who was sworn to secrecy, were not informed
nor were the parents of the other named children.
A
US lawyer, Ms Helen McGonigle, was abused by Smyth in Rhode Island in the late
1960s and her family was devastated. She told the BBC that she was
“outraged” by Brady’s attitude, that it was his “duty as a human” to
protect children and that his inaction regarding Boland’s complaint was
“unforgivable”.
Cardinal
Brady, the Primate of All Ireland, maintains he followed canon law and the
bishop was the only one he had to tell; not the police nor the parents of the
children.
Despite
widespread calls for his resignation, including most of the political leaders in
Ireland, Cardinal Brady says he will not resign. The Promoter of Justice of the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Monsignor Charles Scicluna, the
Vatican expert in this area, agrees that Brady did all required under canon law
and that there is no need for him to resign, saying “ I think he fulfilled his
duty well.”
Marie
Collins, a clerical abuse survivor, commented that Cardinal Brady “should have
had a conscience”. She also pointed out that Msgr Scicluna had done a 360
degree about turn on his views regarding clerical child sexual abuse that he
expressed to her at the “Towards Healing and Renewal” conference held, in
February, at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
The
case of Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, whose resignation was refused by John
Paul II, before finally being accepted, demonstrated that the Vatican does not
want a Prince of the Church to admit he did wrong and resign. In addition, The
International Eucharistic Congress is being held in Dublin from June 10 to
17 and the resignation of Cardinal Brady could be very embarrassing for the Holy
See if it occurred before then.
An
RTE afternoon radio show had a ten minute text poll on Friday May 4 asking
whether the Cardinal should resign or not; 80% voted yes, 20% no, out of
approximately 15000 votes.
Everyone
appears to agree that the Cardinal did all he should have done according to
canon law. However, most people, unlike the Cardinal and the Vatican, believe
the Cardinal had a duty to inform the children’s parents, the police and to
ensure that Smyth was permanently out of commission.
There is talk of police investigations north and south of the border and we could be faced with the strange situation of the Cardinal being found legally guilty while the Vatican maintains his innocence. Perhaps the Cardinal’s resignation could be the best solution for the Vatican in the long run, for the Irish Church now and certainly for the victims.