Auxiliary Bishop of Down and Connor Donal McKeown has defended Cardinal Brady’s actions in a case of alleged clerical sex abuse involving two young women in the Armagh diocese.Dr McKeown said the Cardinal acted with “complete propriety in all aspects of this case”.
Details emerged last night on the cardinal’s handling of allegations made in 2001 by two young women against a priest in Armagh diocese.
There was sufficient evidence to charge the priest in relation to one of the women but not the other.
The priest was acquitted by the courts in Northern Ireland following a trial on one charge arising from the allegations made by the first woman.
After the priest’s acquittal one of his complainants, the woman on behalf of whom no prosecution was brought, sought compensation from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board and, separately, from the priest and Cardinal Brady.
She settled with the priest for £45,000 and then withdrew her action against Cardinal Brady and the compensation board.
Today Dr McKeown defended Cardinal Brady, saying he didn’t know why the case should be seen as a “scandalous situation”.
He said: “The priest was tried in a public court and it was reported in the press so I’m not quite sure what new things would come out that in any way would cast aspersions on the integrity of the Cardinal”.
However, in an interview on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland the bishop also said he felt the Cardinal could have handled his involvement in the Brendan Smyth case in a “much better way”.
“Obfuscation, making excuses, blaming the system, saying we were there but we weren’t really part of it is no way forward," he said.
"It is not a particularly adult way forward and its certainly isn’t any way for church leadership to behave.”
Dr McKeown also said people have a right to be “wary” and “sceptical” about the ability of the current church leadership to take the steps needed to resolve the situation.
Meanwhile, Pope Benedict XVI is expected to sign off on a pastoral letter to the Irish faithful addressing the question of clerical sex abuse.
The Holy See confirmed the letter will be released to the world’s media today.
The letter will offer a Holy See reflection on a problem which in recent months has damaged the Catholic Church not only in Ireland, but also in Austria, Brazil, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.
However, this afternoon the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said decisive action rather than words is what is needed from the Vatican.
“No matter how long, detailed, passionate or ‘unprecedented’ the Pope’s words of sympathy to Irish citizens may be, we hope they will be ignored,” Snap said in a statement.
“There is much the Pope could do right now to help, but we aren’t optimistic. When it comes to abuse, he talks the talk but refuses to walk the walk and with church cover ups he often fails to even talk the talk.”
Snap said they don’t expect the Pope will demand the resignations of “callous, deceitful and reckless Irish bishops who have enabled hundreds of paedophiles to assault thousands of children”.
And they feel he will also not call for more State investigations into other dioceses or reform “predator-friendly” church laws.
They said the Pope’s letter may make a few adults “temporarily feel better” but it won’t make any children safer.
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