Sunday, December 19, 2010

Victim of abuse calls for Brady's resignation

A personal letter demanding the resignation of Cardinal Sean Brady has been sent to the head of the Irish Church by a Cavan victim of notorious paedophile monk Brendan Smyth. 

The renewed call for Cardinal Brady's resignation was made last Thursday night after an Ulster Television special investigation by the last woman to be abused by Smyth in 1993, shortly before his imprisonment.

The woman, who was then 12 years old and lived close to Kilnacrott Abbey in Co Cavan, said she would not have been raped if the then-Fr Brady "had done his job" and reported Smyth to the gardai in 1975.

Cardinal Brady insisted that he would not resign earlier this year when it was discovered that he had taken part in a canon law trial of Smyth and swore two of the monk's child victims to secrecy.

The woman, called 'Mary', told reporter Chris Moore: "I want Cardinal Brady to stand before me and say to me, 'I am really sorry that your teenage years were robbed from you because I did not do my job'."

On the programme, American lawyer and former Benedictine priest Patrick Wall said: "Cardinal Brady made a career decision. He put his career above the safety of children. He should be defrocked."

The Cardinal declined repeated requests to be interviewed on the documentary titled 'The Resurrection of Brendan Smyth'.

SIC: II/IE