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THE CLERICAL ABUSE victim at the centre of the controversy around Cardinal Seán Brady has said his healing process cannot begin until Brady resigns his position.
Brendan Boland, who was interviewed by Brady as a teenager in 1975 after being sexually abused by Fr Brendan Smyth, welcomed yesterday’s apology from the now Primate of All Ireland.
Brady has faced repeated calls to resign since a BBC programme revealed details of his role in the 1975 inquiry, in which he took notes while abuse victims were interviewed. Brady was given names and addresses of other boys being abused by Smyth, but did not take measures to protect them or inform their parents.
Boland today also urged Brady to quit as leader of the Irish Church. In a statement published in full by BBC News, Boland said:
I know that my healing, and I fear the healing of many other abuse victims, will not begin while Cardinal Brady remains as Primate of the Catholic Church in Ireland.
He said he was “delighted” that Brady had now offered a public apology, and said some aspects of the now Cardinal’s behaviour during the 1975 inquiry had been the “right and proper thing”.
Boland added that he hoped he “may yet find the strength to meet personally” with Cardinal Brady.
This weekend, Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin said a full and independent investigation of the widespread abuse by Fr Brendan Smyth was needed, covering the involvement of both Church and State.
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One thing I’m struggling to understand in light of recent exposures is why the Gardai cannot retrospectively move to charge Brady for withholding information and perverting the course of justice. Can anyone shed some light on the reason for that?
Because JC has his back.
gerat to hear all the negative feedback about brady and co but at the end of the day whats going to happen as with politicians bankers developers etc we talk a good fight but honestly folks us Irish are not up to the task of talking these culprits to hand and giving them what they deserve the likes of your fingleton, fitzpatrick and drumm etc can all sleep at night cause they know full well nothing bad will happen to them , same goes for the church in global terms ireland is but a dot on the map in the vaticans eyes and despite what holy joe catholic types think rome could not give a toss about our little island in fact it would be seen as a embarassment to say the least , Less talk folks more action NOW !!!!!!!
Didn’t the interview take place in Belfast? If so it’s the PSNI that should be looking at it…
@mart_n, I think
That it may have to do with canon law??, I may stand to be corrected though.
They don’t have the courage to arrest him and the Garda know that FF, FG and Labour more so, do not have the courage to tackle the lying the church did not to one state states police forces but to two!
Because the clergy hide behind CANON LAW and cover up for their EVIL Colleagues
Is Canon Law superior to constitutional law?
Is Canon Law superior to constitutional law?
Absolutely not.
@ United
It was more of a rhetorical question, I just don’t get why he’s still walking around the place.
Maybe there is somthing I’m missing here.
This might answer it. In 1997 the government changed the law so that those that failed to report or covered up crime were no longer liable to prosecution.
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/change-in-the-law-means-there-is-now-no-criminal-offence-for-failure-to-report-crime-290234.html
I look forward to the day when someone outside the church is up on charges of withholding evidence,surly they could use what happened to Brady as a case not to be prosecuted, this might just highlight the stupidy of the legal system here in Ireland
Arrest Brady !!!!!
He’ll be down here in Dublin next month at the Eucharistic congress..there should be some form of protest outside it for all the children that had there voices silenced by him. I know it might be a bit unfair for catholics attending it but he should not be allowed to go on as normal.
On what charge?
@ alister
Not reporting a crime to the real authorities (raping kids was illegal even back in the 70′s).
Failure to report a crime or a bunch of them, knowing that they had the possibility that they could continue, is and was then, still a crime on the law books – as is negligence and failure to carry out legal duty of care. There are other law sections and torts which Brady SHOULD be charge with…
…Sadly our Garda won’t neither will our government make it happen. They don’t have the courage or the will. They will quietly say nothing and hope this matter will fade away quietly.
He might as well have been running a pedophile ring , JAIL him now
@mojitio joe
He was! What makes you think he wasn’t? He sat in a room full of men questioning a child of 14years of age, a minor, never told his parents, told him not to tell his parents, yet another secret he was made to keep, while taking notes and probably enjoying every minute of it! If he wasn’t enjoying it, why didn’t he speak up, why didn’t he ask to leave the room. Simple really.
Brendan Bolland is a very great man if he can forgive that dog.
If he knew it was going on then he is culpable. The despicable bollix needs to resign his position now and have charges brought against him.
@Howard Cooley,
I wonder could the ordinary person on the street do a ‘citizen’s arrest’? No way is he going to resign, there is no way he will pass on the party celebrations to someone else. Brendan Boland and many great human beings have f . . ked up the chance of him being made a saint, there’s no way that they’re going to take this from him! Brady is rotten, the vatican is rotten, the people in that room that were there that day are rotten, to the core!
Very well put Sheila
My concern here is that the issue of sexual abuse of minors is being compartmentalized into something that Catholic priests do with the corollary that no one else did it.
Nothing can be further from the truth. Sexual and physical abuse of children is endemic in Irish society. Take the 2002 SAVI Report. A staggering 42% of women reported sexual abuse during the course of their lifetime, 28% for men.
Paul,
More often than not on these forums I find myself disagreeing with you. However, on this occasion I completely agree with you. The abuse scandals of recent years have shamed us as a society. Let’s be under no illusions here, it was not just the Catholic Church who conspired to keep both the sexual and physical abuse under wraps. Members of an Garda Síochána turned a blind eye, medical professionals, lay teachers and unfortunately parents did too. In fact, most of the sexual and physical abuse perpetrated on the people of this country was done by family members or close friends. This was and still is a societal issue, not solely a religious issue. However, the fact that people in the Catholic Church, of which I am a member, ignored their Christian duty and allowed children to be abused and tried to silence them is an abomination of what it means to be a Christian. There is no way that these people can claim to represent Christ or His message.
It does tend to overshadow everything else in Ireland when it comes to abuse. I work with Irish domestic survivors in London and people tend to assume that all the sexual abuse came from the church.
To be honest, I think the reason it’s so much more reported is because intra-family abuse has a lot more privacy concerns around reporting.
I’d love to know more about Brendan and his family situation. If he could give names and addresses of cousins to the Church, why did he not give the names to his parents? Of did he? He was 14. And it wasn’t because he was ‘silenced’ by the commission investigating. Did he not tell his parents about the abuse even before he told Church members. If not, why not?
He confirmed my niece last Sunday and I shook his hand. If I had of known this, no way.
Jaysus, I didn’t realise otherwise sensible people were still indoctrinating their young in this cult. Amazing.
Billy, whatever your feelings, it’s not right to belittle the beliefs of others. The abuse that went on sickens me, as does the power held by clergy in times gone by, and the way in which this power was abused.
However, to belittle someone for having their child confirmed is bad form. Catholicism as a religion is not the same as the clergy that represent it. And, as is always the case, the members of the clergy that are guilty if committing these offences represent a minority.
You’re entitled to your opinion, but don’t use it to belittle others. I’m sure the original poster is just as disgusted with the abuse scandal as you, or anyone else is.
@Billy. I take your point. However, I think that many parents are responding to peer pressure from other parents, classmates of their own children, relatives, neighbours etc. In circumstances such as these, with the inherent pressures that come with the territory, I think many parents are simply going through the motions of pretending to acquiesce to the authority of the church, while secretly putting their child’s emotional welfare to the fore. It’s not ideal, but the alternative leaves a lot of parents scratching their heads looking for an alternative. In my own case, three of my twelve year old daughters classmates, were told by their parents that they would not be making their confirmation. This, I learned was out of protest against the churches handling of the abuse cases. I fully respect their decision. I discussed at length the decision that my daughter was considering, and left the final call with her. She made her choice and proceeded to be confirmed, but I can say with absolute certainty, that she was in no way indoctrinated. To be clear, she thinks that either all religions, or none, should be taught in school. I’m one proud dad and I regret that as a child myself, that our thought processes were so tainted by cult like organisations, as to skew our views to such submission. Apologies for the tangential rant.
I agree that Brady should resign as I have written elsewhere on this site. But I have to protest once again at the glaring hypocrisy of those who are baying for his head and yet do not see anything wrong with Gerry Adams being leader of Sinn Fein and participating in the daily affairs of our parliament and Martin McGuinness who came uncomfortably close to being elected President.
For the record, the IRA, while McGuinness and Adams served on the IRA Army Council killed and maimed men, women and children, including the children Nicholas Knatchbull, Jonathan Ball, Tim Parry and Paul Maxwell who were murdered by the IRA.
That Sinn Fein representatives such as Adams should have the bare-faced cheek and utter absence of any moral sensibility to comment on the Brady affair simply beggars belief. What is worse is that so many people do not see this.
I can’t believe anyone would compare what should happen to child sex abusers accomplice with any other issue.
Adams etc can be dealt with by people of this Island but Brady is untouchable as he os appointed.
Separate the two for the victims sake or else they will be forgotten
With respect,
This thread contains no mention of Sinn Fein, Adams, McGuinness or any other politician for that matter. There are plenty other threads where you can air your feelings on them.
To bring them into this story is a pathetic attempt to muddy the waters and deflect from what Brady is responsible for and from his total lack of compassion and humanity in relation to the victims of abuse.
Resignation is the very least we should expect from Brady. In my opinion he should be prosecuted for criminal negligence and collusion in the cover up of a serious crime.
Go Sheila couldn’t have put it better myself
To Brendan Boland Wishing you the very best. and I think most people would love to see Brady Resign and I personally see the Gardai make some arrests too Brendan. I really hope you do get closure and peace in your life
@Tertullian
Many of us do. Sadly, some do not. As much as you feel McGuinness came uncomfortably close to being elected President, it was never going to happen. Even when RTE/McGuinness hanged Gallagher that night, McGuinness knew he hadn’t a hope in hell, but at the same time, he didn’t want Gallagher there either. None of us that were at an age that would remember will ever forget what happened on all sides, the innocent people that were butchered in bombings and murdered will always be in our hearts and minds. Just like the World Wars, we should never forget and never assume it won’t happen again.
There is a very simple way of sorting this ourselves. Stop giving them money. It sickens me to see the amount collected in the church at every mass. Its the best way we can stand up to them, hurt their greedy pockets! Its one way of making them look at change.
Stop going to church pray at home
Not excusing Brady, but what I wonder about Brendan Boland is at what point did he or his father report Brendan Smyth to the police.
You must have missed that bit in the Murphy Commission Report where it was revealed that clergy who abused children were reported to their bishop/archbishop BY An Garda Síochána!
The Gardaí were criticised in the Murphy Report in relation to the handing over of the case of Fr. Edmondus (a pseudonym) to Archbishop McQuaid by Commissioner Costigan. Some very senior Gardaí were criticised for regarding priests as being outside their remit. On November 26, 2009, then Commissioner Fachtna Murphy apologised for the failure of An Garda Siochána to protect victims of child abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese. He said that inappropriate relationships and contacts between gardaí and the Dublin Archdiocese had taken place at a time of undue or misguided deference to religious authorities and that these were incompatible with any investigation.”
Do keep up, please.
@Andrew Brennan, I am familiar with the Murphy report but Brendan Boland didn’t live in Dublin. He reported the matter in Dundalk, and was brought to the meeting by his father who must have known what his son told Brady. Nowhere have I seen it said that Boland or his father reported Smyth’s crimes to the guards. He doesn’t say. That’s my point. What happened to such a complaint if it was made, garda negligence, that’s a different matter.
You must also have missed this in the Ferns Report: “The report was also highly critical of the failure of the Garda Siochána (police) to properly investigate reported incidents. It noted with concern the disappearance of one police file detailing serious incidents of clerical sex abuse.”"
And you must have missed this little snippet about a report from the Garda Inspectorate:
“A report by the Garda Inspectorate into consistent failures by members of the force to properly investigate, record and prosecute cases of child sex abuse makes for disturbing reading. An excessively deferential approach and a reluctance to apply for search warrants to secure church records are suggested as contributory factors.”
And this: “The Ferns, Dublin, Cloyne and Ryan reports revealed occasions when gardaí were more concerned with protecting the reputation of the Catholic Church or shielding themselves from the hassle of a potentially difficult investigation. Chief Inspector O’Toole frankly acknowledges those failings.”
The point I am making that reporting to the Gardai that a priest had been abusing a child would only have resulted in the Gardai handing the information over to the bishop in authority or the Religious Superior – who would then transfer the abuser to a new parish, diocese or country – where more children would be abused.
I’d love to know more about Brendan and his family situation. If he could give names and addresses of cousins to the Church, why did he not give the names to his parents? Of did he? He was 14. And it wasn’t because he was ‘silenced’ by the commission investigating. Did he not tell his parents about the abuse even before he told Church members. If not, why not?
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