Madam, – Fr Edward McGee for Down and Connor diocese (Letters, January 19th) says Fr Brendan Smyth was not a diocesan priest of that diocese and never held an appointment therein. I never claimed those things.
What I did say was that Fr Smyth ministered in the diocese with the knowledge and consent of Cahal Daly – which he did. In either event, maybe Fr McGee would like to explain the niceties of the distinction between “appointment” and “ministry” to the children whom Brendan Smyth brutally sexually abused. – Yours, etc,
A chara, – Have these priests learnt nothing from the Ryan report? Fr Edward McGee’s weasel excuses that Fr Brendan Smyth may not have been a diocesan priest, etc, etc, etc, are irrelevant.
Smyth was my chaplain in St Dominic’s High School in Belfast during my time there.
I was oblivious to the fact he was abusing friends, classmates and neighbours while at the same time telling us how to be good Catholics in the classroom.
The time for splitting legal and clerical hairs is long gone. Priests like Fr McGee will only drive us, in disgust, to the “count me out” website sooner rather than later. – Is mise,