SURVIVORS of clerical abuse say the Primate of All-Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh, Cardinal Seán Brady, told them he would comply with a statutory tribunal into the Church’s handling of clerical sex abuse complaints, if such a body was to be established.The Survivors of Clerical Sex Abuse (SOCA) group, Marie Collins, Michael O’Brien of Right to Peace and Christopher Heaphy of Right of Place met individually with the archbishop yesterday.
John Kelly of SOCA said his group warned the cardinal that "he had created this perception that he was a lame-duck primate because of his failure to decide once and for all whether he is resigning".
"We told him that here was an urgent need for him to make a final decision on his future so that people know where the future of the Church in Ireland lies. We all discussed how the Church has been damaged by the drip-feed of allegations and that there was a need for a national tribunal where everything could come out at once. We believe, however, that this tribunal would have to be statutory so people would be obliged to comply and to hand over documents. He said he would make himself available to such an enquiry if that happened."
SOCA also suggested that the National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC) take over the handling of all complaints made against priests and that each diocese’s child protection unit be dismantled. The cardinal said he would not oppose such a move.
Marie Collins said she advised the cardinal that every bishop who has failed in the area of child protection in the past should "own up" to their failings immediately and all dioceses should open their files to the public.
Ms Collins said the cardinal did not support that point of view. She also called on him to resign over his failure to report allegations of abuse to statutory bodies in 1975.
"I asked him to do this for the sake of the future of the Church. However, he got very defensive and showed no sign of remorse. He said he did what he was supposed to do at the time."
According to the cardinal’s spokesman, "the primary purpose of the meetings was for the Church representatives to continue to listen to the views of survivors of abuse in the aftermath of the publication Pope Benedict XVI’s pastoral letter".
Bishop of Dromore John McAreavey attended as did Lucy McCaffrey who is facilitating contact between survivors of abuse and the Irish Bishops’ Conference, and the cardinal’s assistant, Fr Timothy Bartlett.
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