Pope accepts Cardinal Brady’s resignation

Cardinal Sean Brady

Pope Francis has accepted Cardinal Sean Brady’s resignation as leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland.

Cardinal Brady said it had been a great joy and privilege for him to serve as Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland since 1996.

“I am pleased that Pope Francis has today accepted the resignation which I offered to him on the occasion of my 75th birthday,” said Cardinal Brady.

“I warmly congratulate Archbishop Eamon Martin who today becomes Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of All Ireland.”

Cardinal Brady, whose final years as a clerical leader were dogged by abuse scandals, said he would pray that God may give to Archbishop Eamon in abundance all the graces he needs.

“I assure him of my help and total support at all times,” continued the Cardinal, who was first appointed a bishop by Pope St John Paul II.

The Primate of All Ireland announced plans to step down on age grounds last month after turning 75, the age which bishops are required by canon law to tender their resignation.

However survivors of clerical sex abuse criticised the move as “too little, too late”.

Cardinal Brady was heavily criticised for swearing two victims of paedophile priest Brendan Smyth to secrecy during an internal church inquiry in 1975 into the abuse of two children.

His resignation letter to the Vatican coincided with a call from Irish clerical abuse survivor Marie Kane, who met Pope Francis on July 7, for the cardinal to stand down immediately. Pope Francis later promised to hold bishops accountable for the protection of children and begged forgiveness from victims.

Separately, the Dundalk man who exposed Cardinal Brady’s role in the church inquiry said he was not resigning, but rather retiring ‘as if he has done nothing wrong’.

Brendan Boland, who was abused by the notorious serial paedophile Smyth, revealed that five more of the dead cleric’s victims have come forward since the publication of his book ‘Sworn to Silence’.

The Cardinal previously said he truly sorry for the suffering of victims, but stressed he would not resign over the controversy.

However he made no direct reference to the claims as he addressed massgoers in Armagh.

Instead he recalled the Pope’s motto “miserando atque eligendo” which he said “challenges and inspires me with its message of God having mercy and at the same time choosing us, despite our sinfulness”.

“It reminds me that I too need to say sorry and to ask forgiveness,” he added.

“And I do so again, now. At the same time, Pope Francis’ motto inspires me to trust in the mercy of God and to pray for the strength to do always as Jesus would have me do.

“The people of the Archdiocese of Armagh and the people of Ireland will remain in my prayers for the rest of my life. I ask the favour of your prayers to help me continue to serve God as best I can all the days God gives me.”

Boland disappointed with manner of Cardinal Brady’s retirement

Brendan Boland’s book ‘Sworn to Silence’

Local abuse victim Brendan Boland (53) has expressed disappointment at the manner of Cardinal Sean Brady’s retirement as Archbishop of Armagh and Catholic Primate of All-Ireland, describing it it as “too little, too late.”

The cardinal, who was 75 on Saturday, has submitted his resignation to Rome, as is required of all Catholic bishops when they reach that age. He remains a cardinal for life and may continue to vote in papal elections until August 16th, 2019, when he will be 80.

In 1975 Boland, then 14, was questioned by canon lawyer Fr Sean Brady and Dundalk parish priest Msgr Francis Donnelly on allegations he made about being abused by Norbertine priest Fr Brendan Smyth.

Present in support of Boland was then young Dominican priest Fr Oliver McShane in whom the teenager had first confided about the abuse. Fr McShane has since left the priesthood. At the end of the inquiry Brendan Boland was sworn to secrecy by Fr Brady.

On Cardinal Brady’s letter of resignation, Brendan – who recently released a book on the subject called ‘Sworn to Silence’ – said  “it’s a long time coming.” He felt “he should have done it back in 2010. Maybe he should not have taken the job at all in 1994 when he found out Smyth was arrested in Northern Ireland”.

Interviewed on RTÉ Radio One’s This Week programme yesterday, he said he and Smyth’s other victims were “really disappointed. Cardinal Brady is resigning, but it appears to us that he’s just retiring naturally as if he’s done nothing wrong. I feel let down again. They’re attempting to save face again.

“They’ve failed to acknowledge the mishandling of the information that I gave them back in 1975, which is the names and addresses of five or six other children that I knew were being abused, and they failed to act on that.

“Back then the cardinal could at least have gone to the parents of the children, that would have stopped it. He had the information,” Mr Boland said.

“He went to another child and he took him out of school and he questioned him without even letting his parents know and he swore that other child to secrecy as well, in Cavan. So that meant that child wasn’t going to tell his parents and to this day that child has never done it.”

Cardinal Brady had apologised to him but “I wasn’t looking for a personal apology to myself. I was looking for an apology to all the children who had been abused since 1975, when he had the information. That’s the apology I wanted, not an apology to me.”

He has “no desire to meet with Cardinal Brady whatsoever”, but he would like the Cardinal to “read my book (Sworn to Silence), read it on a human level, and reflect on it, then come and talk to me and then tell me if he felt he was right to retire naturally or if he should have resigned.”

Abuse victim Brendan to launch book in Dundalk this Thursday

Local man Brendan Boland will be launching his book ‘Sworn to Silence’ this Thursday evening at  6.30pm at Easons in the Marshes Shopping Centre.

The abuse victim wrote the book to focus on his life, the abuse by Fr Brendan Smyth and the cover up by the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in Ireland.

Brendan, from Dundalk, was an 11-year-old altar boy when he was first sexually abused by Fr Smyth in the mid-Seventies.

The abuse lasted for two years before he reported the matter to Fr Sean Brady – now a Cardinal – in 1975.

However, after giving evidence about the abuse of him and others, he was sworn to secrecy at a meeting in the Friary Church.

Cardinal Brady signed two reports about the abuse of Boland and another boy and passed them on to his bishop, but the police were never informed.

It was not until 1994 that Smyth was convicted of dozens of offences against children over a 40-year period.

In 2012 Boland accepted a public apology from Cardinal Brady but said that his healing, and that of many other abuse victims, would not begin while the Cardinal remained as Primate of the Catholic Church in Ireland.

The book has been published by O’Brien Press and was with by Brendan in conjunction with Darragh MacIntyre.

For further information call Easons at 042-9356527.

Boland to release book on abuse by Fr Brendan Smyth and cover up in Catholic Church

Abuse victim Brendan Boland has written a new book called ‘Sworn to Silence’, which focuses on his life, the abuse by Fr Brendan Smyth and the cover up by the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in Ireland.

Brendan, from Dundalk, was an 11-year-old altar boy when he was first sexually abused by Fr Smyth in the mid-Seventies.

The abuse lasted for two years before he reported the matter to Fr Sean Brady – now a Cardinal – in 1975.

However, after giving evidence about the abuse of him and others, he was sworn to secrecy at a meeting in the Friary Church.

Cardinal Brady signed two reports about the abuse of Boland and another boy and passed them on to his bishop, but the police were never informed.

It was not until 1994 that Smyth was convicted of dozens of offences against children over a 40-year period.

In 2012 Boland accepted a public apology from Cardinal Brady but said that his healing, and that of many other abuse victims, would not begin while the Cardinal remained as Primate of the Catholic Church in Ireland.

His book will be published on July 17^th.