The Church’s mindset over child abuse is frozen in time

CARDINAL BRADY is a learned man and the many bishops, priests and lay people who have worked with him over the course of his esteemed career speak of him with the highest regard.

However, his failure to come clean on his role in the Church’s irresponsible and shameful approach to Fr Brendan Smyth has done irrevocable damage to his legacy. How could he have felt that it was in any way acceptable to ask a 10-year-old child and 14-year-old child to sign oaths of secrecy around their sexual abuse by Fr Brendan Smyth?

And why, even if he wasn’t the child protection delegate, didn’t he feel that a predator like Smyth needed to be removed from society by the country’s justice system and not just dressed down by a canonical court and then sent off to another parish to resume his reign of terror?