Fr Smyth’s toxic legacy - Church has destroy edits credibility

NO matter what else he achieves Cardinal Seán Brady’s legacy will be defined by the image of him asking two prepubescent children to sign oaths of secrecy to protect the most notorious and persistent paedophile sheltered by the Irish Catholic Church in modern times.

No matter how loudly he declares his determination to make Catholicism, especially the hierarchy, accept that our Constitution is the authority we submit to; no matter how loudly he says his church will not tolerate the abominations of the past, he will be remembered as the 35-year-old professor of canon law, who in 1975, actively obstructed the criminal justice system by being part of a process that silenced two victims of Fr Brendan Smyth. These revelations are shocking and very disappointing on so many, many fronts.

It yet again points to an intervention designed to protect the church but not hinder Fr Smyth, much less report him, as should have been done, to the gardaí. It raises the question about how many more raped and buggered children were silenced by “oaths”. Though how an oath – a sacred commitment to truth – drawn from two abused children could be used to bury such an abomination beggars belief. In reality it was corruption heaped upon corruption.

Compounding the scandal this weekend Cardinal Brady said his 1975 actions had been part of a process that removed the paedophile’s licence to act as a priest. To act as a priest? That made little or no difference to the subsequent victims of Fr Smyth who admitted attacks on almost 100 children over four decades.

The bureaucracy of the church had been satisfied, its image had been protected. That Fr Smyth was free to indulge his sadism was of little relevance to the process facilitated by Cardinal Daly.

No matter how generously you interpret Cardinal Daly’s behaviour it is impossible to conclude other than that he was involved in a criminal conspiracy. The whole sorry, sad affair was moved to a dangerous level yesterday morning when, speaking on RTÉ, Monsignor Maurice Dooley, a professor of canon law, said Cardinal Brady had no obligation to report anything to gardaí.

If an individual from any other background said that it would be seen as criminal subversion and treated accordingly. Monsignor Dooley’s outrageous pronouncement confirms that the leopard may be singing a different tune but that it has not changed its spots.

These revelations and the response to them will deepen the sense of betrayal felt by so many good people clinging to their faith despite decades of clerical scandals. It’s ironic that the secularism so reviled by the church did not destroy the faith of so many, rather it was destroyed by a institution incapable of reform or understanding that it had obligations other than those to itself. Secularism exposed the evil protected by the church but the church is destroying itself.

Cardinal Daly insists he will not resign and unless the culture of omertá and self-interest that still defines the church changes it is of little consequence whether he, or any of his colleagues, does or not. It may be an affront if he stays in office but it is of increasing irrelevance other than to force us as individuals and as a society to redefine our relationship with the institution of the Catholic Church.