Irish Deputy Prime Minister calls on Cardinal Sean Brady to resign over pedophile cover-up

[muriel_volestrangler]

Ireland’s Deputy Leader Eamon Gilmore has called on Cardinal Sean Brady to resign after sensational new revelations about his role in covering up the actions of notorious pedophile Father Brendan Smyth.

The allegations were made in a BBC documentary this week that Brady had covered up his own role in investigating Smyth, a notorious pedophile, and his victims. Brady had claimed he was merely a note taker back in 1987 during an internal church inquiry but the BBC report claimed he was an active participant.

"It is my own personal view that anybody who did not deal with the scale of the abuse that we have seen in this case should not hold a position of authority," Gilmore told the Irish parliament.

Gilmore, who is also Minister for Foreign Affairs, called it "another horrific episode of failure by senior members of the Catholic Church to protect children."

Read more: http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Irish-Deputy-Prime-Minister-calls-on-Cardinal-Sean-Brady-to-resign-over-pedophile-cover-up-149981065.html#ixzz1tpaw767m

Cardinal Brady 'failed to act on sex abuse claims'

What Cardinal Brady failed to tell anyone in 2010 was that Brendan Boland had also given him and his colleagues the precise details of a group of children, some of whom, were being abused by Smyth.

Cardinal Brady did interview one of them and swore him to secrecy.

This World spoke to all of the children who Brendan Boland had identified; they all told the programme that to the best of their knowledge none of their parents or families were warned in any way about the paedophile Brendan Smyth.

Four of them had been abused by Smyth. Two of them continued to be abused after the 1975 inquiry.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-17894419

[cbayer]

1. Resign? Are there not any legal consequences?

[edhopper]

2. No

Religions are not treated the way other institutions are. If this scandal had happened in any other organization, it would have been disbanded.
Compare it to the Susan Komen Charity, or Acorn.
There is no accountability for the Church.

[cbayer]

4. That's not true here.

There have been both criminal and civil charges against individuals and the institutions. I'm not sure if this is the case in Ireland, though.

I don't get your Acorn or Komen analogy.

[edhopper]

7. Small scandals

destroyed both institutions. In the case of Acorn, it was a fake, drummed up scandal which still ended them.
The entirety of the Catholic Church was involved in the systematic cover up of the decades of child abuse. A few Priests have gone to jail, the Church paid out a few $, but it remains intact. Even though many directly involved (the Pope for instance) are still in place.
Any non-religious organization with this record would have been forced to close.

[cbayer]

8. I'm not going to defend the actions of the catholic individuals and leaders

who perpetrated and covered up these crimes, but I think they have been forced to make some pretty dramatic changes.

If for no other reason, this was bankrupting them in some places. No one can force them to close, no matter what kind of organization they are.

[laconicsax]

9. Name those changes if you will. n/t

[cbayer]

10. Nope. You can google it.

[laconicsax]

11. Why should I research your claims?

You've claimed that the Church has been "forced to make some pretty dramatic changes."

The only changes I've seen are window dressing, so I'd like to know what you consider to be "pretty dramatic changes."

I'd also like to know whether you think it's acceptable that those who ordered and oversaw the cover-up have gone unpunished.

[Goblinmonger]

12. Unpunished, promoted, and made pope, to be exact. n/t

[cbayer]

13. You may consider it window dressing, but many changes have been made

and the incidence of abuse and cover up of abuse has plummeted.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/15/us/scandals-church-bishops-decisions-bishops-charter-for-protection-children-young.html


http://www.bishop-accountability.org/usccb/causesandcontext/2004-02-27-CC-Report.pdf

I think that everyone involved should be punished. It's heinous.

[laconicsax]

14. Pledging to do the right thing (not encourage and cover up child rape) is the bare minimum.

It's great that fewer children are being raped, but agreeing to do what any responsible, moral person would do without hesitation is really the least they could do.

[edhopper]

15. Last I saw

the man who was complicit in the cover up is still Pope.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/24/pope-sexual-abuse-lawrence-murphy_n_512483.html

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2010/03/the_great_catholic_coverup.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8587082.stm

[edhopper]

16. In the US

a criminal organization can certainly be closed and it's property confiscated for those it has harmed.

[cbayer]

17. While crimes have been committed, I might not go so far as to call

the catholic church a criminal organization. You might, though.

And lots of property has had to be sold to cover the costs of the crimes. And some members have gone to jail.

Again, I really don't want to be in the position of defending the church as I find what they did reprehensible. I just don't see anyway to shut them down as a an organization and would note that many good things they do would be lost if that happened.

[edhopper]

18. My point. Any other non religious organization with this kind of horrendous,

criminal activity at it's heart, with a cover up that goes to the head of the org. would be shut down.

I realize it won't be.

BTW; I like your avatar. "More cheese?"

[cbayer]

19. Would you like a nice cuppa tea and some Wensleydale?

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Hard to prove legal liability, I'd think

It's true he wasn't the most senior cleric involved; and 'failure to report child abuse' may or may not have been a crime itself then, and there might also be a statute of limitations involved too - I don't know. This is the rough equivalent of the Joe Paterno case, I'd say. As far as I know, he was never charged with anything.

[cbayer]

5. Failure to report child abuse is a crime in the US.

Everyone who works in the medical field knows that. It's one of the few areas where a breach of confidentiality trumps the rights of the patient.

There's been at least one case against a bishop here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/15/us/kansas-city-bishop-indicted-in-reporting-of-abuse-by-priest.html

But any of the things you note may keep it from being prosecutable in this case.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. Paterno legally only had to report it to his 'superior', the university president

Football coach Joe Paterno and other Penn State officials didn't do enough to try to stop suspected sexual abuse of children at the hands of a former assistant football coach, the state police commissioner said Monday.

Paterno may have fulfilled his legal requirement to report suspected abuse by former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, state police Commissioner Frank Noonan said, "but somebody has to question about what I would consider the moral requirements for a human being that knows of sexual things that are taking place with a child."

He added: "I think you have the moral responsibility, anyone. Not whether you're a football coach or a university president or the guy sweeping the building. I think you have a moral responsibility to call us."

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/story/16017251/two-top-officials-step-down-amid-penn-state-scandal?ttag=gen10_on_all_fb_na_txt_0001

And I would imagine that, in the 70s, Ireland would not have had a stronger law than that. I think this will be purely moral pressure on him. Which is coming from all sides - when a former IRA commander is saying you should resign because of what you did in the 70s, you're in trouble.