THE CATHOLIC Church has reached an out-of-court settlement, said to be worth more than €250,000, with a woman who was abused as a child by Fr Brendan Smyth, it was reported last night.Marie McCormack sued the Catholic primate Cardinal Seán Brady, in his personal and official capacities, the diocese of Kilmore and the Norbertine Order to which Smyth belonged.
It followed her being sexually abused by Smyth between 1970 and 1975.
The settlement was made without admission of liability and included apologies by the defendants, which were accepted.
It was the High Court action by Ms McCormack which led to disclosures last March that Cardinal Seán Brady had been involved in canonical investigations into abuse allegations against Smyth in 1975 which involved two young people.
He believed both complainants and swore them to secrecy at the end of his inquiry in the Kilmore diocese.
Ms McCormack’s case was to be heard in the High Court next month.
She now lives in Canada and has said, according to an RTÉ report, that 35 years after the abuse, her marriage and quality of life have been greatly affected by the trauma she suffered, which began when she was 14 and continued until she was 20.
In her sworn affidavit, she accused Cardinal Brady of failing to tell gardaí that the church had received formal signed complaints against Smyth of sexual assault and paedophilia on two boys.
She accused the cardinal of failing to take any adequate steps to ensure that Smyth did not sexually assault her and other children, despite knowing about the complaints by the two male victims.
Since the disclosures last March, Cardinal Brady has said he did his duty by informing his then bishop of Smyth’s abuse of the boys.
He said he was not the designated authority to report to the Garda and that Smyth’s Norbertine Order was responsible for the priest after the removal of his priestly functions in Kilmore and other dioceses.
SIC: IT