Abuse issue cast cloud over ‘humble pastor’ Cardinal Seán Brady

What was striking yesterday was the warmth and affection with which so many church leaders and others spoke of Cardinal Seán Brady. A naturally humble, decent and unassuming man, he formed easy friendships across the divisions which have bedevilled church relations on this island for centuries.

His non-threatening demeanour helped in no small way to pave the way towards an unprecedented normality in such relations among the four main churches in Ireland, but also with more hardline Protestants too. This helped to make the 1998 Belfast Agreement possible and to sustain the peace process since.

It was his old friend and colleague in Kilmore diocese Bishop Leo O'Reilly who described Cardinal Brady yesterday as "a humble pastor of deep faith". This, he said, "equipped him well over the last 20 years as he led the Catholic Church through our most turbulent period since the Penal Laws." The cardinal also, said Bishop O'Reilly, "prioritised and oversaw the development of robust child safeguarding guidelines for the church".

Inquiry

While that is true, it is also the case that for the past four years the child abuse issue cast a cloud over Cardinal Brady's tenure at the top. In 2010 it emerged that he had taken part in an 1975 inquiry into claims by 14-year-old Brendan Boland that he had been abused by Fr Brendan Smyth. He swore Brendan Boland to secrecy and another boy he spoke to about being abused by Smyth at the time. Neither case was reported to the police or to parents of any children named to him as victims of Smyth, who continued to abuse for 18 more years.

It is believed Cardinal Brady wanted to stand down in 2010 but Rome resisted. Since then he has been "taking a hit for the team". He is not the first senior Irish churchman to do so. It was Cardinal Desmond Connell who protested at a fraught 2002 press conference in Maynooth that the abuse issue had "devastated" his period as archbishop of Dublin. He is not alone. The root in each case has been unquestioning loyalty to the institution.

Resignation

The press conference took place following an extraordinary meeting of the Catholic bishops called after the resignation of Bishop of Ferns Brendan Comiskey, precipitated by the BBC documentary Suing the Pope.

What incensed the media present was not so much Cardinal Connell’s performance as that of then Archbishop Brady, president of the Irish Episcopal Conference. Asked repeatedly whether church files would be released to a State inquiry into the abuse issue he pointedly declined to mention files, saying instead that the church would “co-operate” or “provide the information required”. The effect was incendiary. What media didn’t know then was that in 1997 Rome refused to support child protection guidelines prepared by the Irish bishops which included a requirement that all clerical abuse allegations be reported to civil authorities.

In 1999 when the Irish bishops visited Rome they were reminded by a Vatican official they were "bishops first, not policemen" on the abuse issue.

In 2001 Cardinal Hoyos, prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for Clergy, wrote to a French bishop congratulating him for not co-operating with a police inquiry into child abuse by a priest who was sentenced to 18 years in jail. Bishop Pierre Pican received a three-month suspended sentence.

Cardinal Hoyos remained in situ until 2006. Speaking in November 2010 of the Hoyos period at the Congregation for Clergy, Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said “most of the Irish bishops felt that dealing with the Congregation for Clergy was disastrous”. It was. For them, and who knows how many clerical child abuse victims.