Wednesday, May 02, 2012

New claims over Cardinal Sean Brady's role in 1975 abuse inquiry into Brendan Smith

New allegations about a 1975 secret internal Catholic Church inquiry into the activities of paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth have been made in a BBC documentary.

It emerged two years ago that Cardinal Seán Brady, then a 36-year-old priest teaching at St Patrick's College in Cavan and a bishop's part-time secretary, was one of three priests involved in the inquiry.

He was the note-taker who took details of the evidence from 14-year-old Dundalk boy, Brendan Boland, who told how Fr Smyth had been abusing him.

Archbishop Brady stated two years ago that after the inquiry was completed he passed on the full details of the evidence to his then bishop, the late Dr Francis McKiernan.

In the documentary, Mr Boland told reporter Darragh MacIntyre that in 1975 he also gave the internal church inquiry details of two other boys, one in Cavan and a second in Belfast, who were at risk from Fr Smyth.

The programme, called 'The Shame of the Catholic Church', claimed that the abuse allegations were not brought to the attention of the families of those two boys.

The programme tracked down the Belfast boy at the centre of the new allegations.

He claimed that Fr Smyth went on to sexually abuse him for a further year after the internal church inquiry.

The man also told the programme makers that Fr Smyth sexually abused his sister over a seven-year period after the 1975 inquiry, and that the priest was abusing his cousins up to 1988.

When details of Cardinal Brady's role in the 1975 inquiry became public, he stated that he provided a full report of the claims made to his then bishop.

In a response to the BBC programme, the Catholic Church said that in 1975 "no State or church guidelines for responding to allegations of child abuse existed in Ireland".

The controversy may create fresh calls on Cardinal Brady to resign.

Shatter 'disturbed' by revelations

Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has described as “tragic and disturbing” the cases outlined in last night’s BBC programme.

He said it was for Cardinal Brady to make whatever comment he deems appropriate in the light of the programme.

Minister Shatter said the documentary illustrated that the reforms that the Government is making in that area under the Withholding of Information on Offences Against Children and Vulnerable Persons Bill, which was published last week, will hopefully mean that this type of tragic situation should not arise in the future.

He added that these are another number of shocking allegations in cases where children were very tragically the subject of abuse.

The minister added that if a report had been made to the civil authorities at the time, some of those who were victims of abuse may never have become such victims, while others would have had an intervention that would have ended their abuse earlier.

The One in Four group says survivors will be heartbroken by what was revealed by the programme.

Spokesperson Maeve Lewis said the revelations require an explanation from the cardinal.
Defending Cardinal Brady's actions at the time of the inquiry, Monsignor Charles Scicluna, said: "I think he fulfilled his duty well."

The Promoter of Justice of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith added that he was sure Cardinal Brady was still a fit person to lead the church in Ireland.

When asked if Cardinal Brady had any questions to answer as a result of the BBC documentary, Monsignor Scicluna said: "I don't think so, no."

He said Fr Brady in 1975 was a note-taker, and did what he should have done by forwarding all information to the people that had the power and authority to act.

Mr Scicluna said it was in the interests of the church in Ireland to have Cardinal Brady as Archbishop of Armagh, because he has shown determination in promoting child protection policies.

The Catholic Church Ireland needed to have leaders who had "learned the hard way and are determined to protect children," the monsignor said.