Irish Cardinal Won't Resign Over Abuse Cover-Up

(March 16) -- Calls for the embattled leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland to resign increased today while the Vatican tried to stem the growing flood of outrage over sexual abuse scandals all over Europe.

Cardinal Sean Brady, the Primate of All Ireland, remained defiant over revelations that he forced two children to sign oaths of secrecy about being abused by Ireland's most notorious pedophile priest.

Brady said he was only a priest and a teacher in 1975 when he interviewed two children about the Rev. Brendan Smyth, a priest who was eventually arrested in 1994 after abusing an estimated 90 children during more than 40 years in the U.S. and Ireland. He said the superiors in the case were the only ones who had the authority to report Smyth, but added that he did believe the two victims.

"Yes, I knew that these were crimes," Brady said. "But I did not feel that it was my responsibility to denounce the actions of Brendan Smyth to the police."

Irish church officials released a statement "clarifying" Brady's role today, saying the children were asked to sign the oaths of silence "to avoid potential collusion" in evidence gathering. They also backed up Brady's insistence that he was not a church superior at the time and was not the one responsible for turning in Smyth.

The furor over Smyth helped bring down the Irish government at the time he was finally arrested after years of being shuffled back and forth between dioceses in Ireland and the U.S., often by superiors who knew he was a pedophile. The Smyth case was a turning point in forcing Ireland to confront decades of clerical sexual abuse.

Reaction in Ireland, including from Catholic lay groups like the Voice of the Faithful, was especially angry because Brady stated last December, after the release of a devastating investigation into clerical sexual abuse in Ireland, that he would resign if a child had been abused as a result of some failure on his part.

"I would remember that child sex abuse is a very serious crime and very grave, and if I found myself in a situation where I was aware that my failure to act had allowed or meant that other children were abused, well, then, I think I would resign," Brady said at the time.

Brady said he did not have the authority to report Smyth to the authorities because child abuse cases were handled differently in 1975, and he was not a bishop or in a managerial position back then.

"There was a culture of silence about this, a culture of secrecy -- that's the way society dealt with it," Brady said. He added that he would resign only "if asked by the Holy Father."

One in Four, an abuse victims' support group in Dublin, called on the Irish government today to intervene in the case, saying it was "clear from the response of the pope, Cardinal Brady and the Catholic Church that they have no intention of taking responsibility."

"Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, but it won't feel very festive for the Irish with all that has happened," said Deirdre Kenny, a spokeswoman for the group.

In the U.S., Helen McGonigle, 48, a Connecticut attorney who said she was abused by Smyth at age 6 in Rhode Island and has filed a lawsuit against a Providence diocese, called for Brady's resignation as well. She said that if Brady told the police about Smyth in 1975, many children would not have suffered from his abuse as she did.

"To think that the head of the church of Ireland knew about Smyth and helped cover it up for 35 years is horrendous," said McGonigle, who said the priest also abused her late sister.

"Smyth had a devastating effect on my life," she continued. "If only the church had done the right thing and turned in these pedophile priests, so many of us would not have had to suffer."