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Fresh claims put pressure on Cardinal Brady
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of BBC News
Posted: May 8th, 2012
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-17853126
Cardinal [Sen] Brady became the Catholic Primate of all-Ireland in 1996, but the appointment that may define his career was made 21 years earlier. As a Bishop's secretary in 1975, he was tasked with investigating a complaint of sexual abuse made against a fellow priest, the man who would later be exposed as Ireland's most prolific paedophile, Fr Brendan Smyth. The manner in which he handled that internal church inquiry has come under intense scrutiny. Following two major and damning reports into the handling of clerical abuse in Ireland, it emerged that Ireland's most senior Catholic Priest had himself been involved in a process in which sex abuse was kept from the civil authorities. At the time Cardinal Brady described his role in the Brendan Smyth investigation as that of a "note-taker". What actually happened during that inquiry has now been exposed by reporter Darragh McIntyre, who has uncovered the full extent of Cardinal Brady's involvement. McIntyre's BBC investigation reveals that the teenage victim, Brendan Boland, had also told the then Father Brady and his colleagues, about other children who were being abused by Smyth. Father Brady interviewed one of those boys, who corroborated each of Brendan Boland's claims before being sworn to secrecy. Father Brady however, failed to inform any parent of the children in the group that they had been abused. Nor were the police told of Smyth's crimes against them. The result was that Brendan Smyth remained free to abuse another boy.
Note: For key reports from major media sources on the Catholic Church and other institutional sexual abuse scandals, click here.
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