CARDINAL SEÁN Brady has said he wants a “just resolution” to a legal case involving an alleged victim of paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth.
- In a statement yesterday afternoon he said he had asked his legal representatives to engage with the complainant’s legal team “with a view to progressing the case” and that, as court proceedings were ongoing, it was not appropriate for him to comment further.
The complainant referred to is suing Cardinal Brady as Archbishop of Armagh and as the Catholic Church representative in Ireland, in a High Court legal action which began in 1997. The man claims he was sexually assaulted on a number of occasions by Smyth in Dundalk in the early 1970s, as well as in Dublin and on a trip to Cork.
He alleges the church organised an ecclesiastical court to deal with the allegations when they were raised and that he and his father had been assured at the time that Smyth would never again be allowed access to children.
According to Cardinal Brady’s defence, dated February 2009, he argues there is no case for an action against him. He awaited proof that the abuse happened and he denied that Fr Brendan Smyth was his servant or agent or that the church owed the man making the allegations any duty of care. He also denied giving the man and his father any assurances about Smyth. He denied having called an ecclesiastical court in the case.
RTÉ, which has seen the cardinal’s defence, reported yesterday that a solicitor for the alleged victim wrote to Cardinal Brady last month saying the stance he was taking “compounded the grievous wrong” perpetrated on his client. The solicitor said Cardinal Brady should withdraw his defence as a practical expression of his remorse over clerical child sex abuse.
Earlier this month, Cardinal Brady apologised for his handling of complaints against Smyth and expressed shame that he has not always upheld the values that he professes and believes in.
The apology came after it emerged that Cardinal Brady had conducted canonical inquiries into allegations of child sex abuse by Smyth 35 years ago, involving two young people whom he swore to secrecy at the end of his inquiry.
It also emerged that at no time, then or since, did he report the allegations to gardaí or any civil authorities.
- Yesterday Christine Buckley, of Dublin’s Aislinn centre, called on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to investigate Pope Benedict XVI’s handling of clerical child sex abuse allegations.
Following the emergence of complaints since the pope was Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, until April 2005, when he was “responsible for advising bishops and religous on how to deal with complaints”, she said “he cannot act the Pontius Pilate and must state clearly his role in the handling of the problems.”
“He has serious questions to answer about his role,” she said and that this “must be dealt with by either the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights or some other respected third party.”