Cardinal to meet Pope to discuss abuse report

The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland is to meet with the Pope to discuss a damning investigation into clerical child abuse.

Cardinal Sean Brady will travel to the Vatican next week for the meeting with Pope Benedict XVI on the findings of the Murphy report on the crimes of paedophile priests in the Dublin archdiocese over the last forty years.

The probe found that successive bishops covered up abuse committed by their clergy and the police and authorities failed to properly pursue allegations under the belief that church figures were above the law.

The Murphy report was published months after the Ryan Report detailed abuse carried out in children’s homes throughout the Irish republic run by Catholic religious orders.

Cardinal Brady will fly to Rome with current Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin for the papal meeting.

“I know we have failed people and especially the survivors of the abuse and now is the time for action and accountability and taking of responsibility for what has taken place,” he told RTÉ today.

“Archbishop Martin and I are going to Rome to meet Pope Benedict. We went there after the Ryan report and we will go there this week and discuss the findings of the (Murphy) report.”

While the Murphy and Ryan reports focused on crimes committed south of the Irish border, there have been no similar investigations in the North.

Cardinal Brady said he would support calls for such an inquiry in the North.

In regard to one of senior clerics criticised in the Murphy report, Bishop Donal Murray, he said he had been in contact with him and was confident he would ’do the right thing’.