The Vatican's chief investigator has insisted Ireland's most senior cleric has no case to answer over renewed allegations of mishandling of allegations against the paedophile Brendan Smyth.
Monsignor Charles J Scicluna defended Cardinal Sean Brady's role in secret interviews with a 14-year-old victim in 1975 in which he was told it was likely the late priest was abusing five other named children.
The Vatican cleric, from the Holy See's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, claimed the Primate of All-Ireland had fulfilled his duties by referring information on child abuse to his seniors.
Three years ago when explosive allegations about Cardinal Brady's role in the canon inquiry into Smyth emerged he said he would resign if he found his actions or failings had led to another child being abused.
"His duty, and I think that what I would expect of a notary or an interviewer's duty, is to pass the information to the people who are in authority," Monsignor Scicluna said.
"The people who are in authority would have the duty not only to put the people away from danger and so, if they are minors, to inform their parents, but also to make sure that the priest who is offending doesn't offend and that he is put under supervision. Father Brady referred all this information to the people who had authority and a duty to act."
Monsignor Scicluna, known in Vatican circles as the promoter of justice, told RTE the cardinal was only a note-taker in 1975.
"He was doing his duty to investigate something that had come to the knowledge of the church and I think he fulfilled his duty well," he said.
New evidence unearthed in the BBC documentary found Cardinal Brady had the names and addresses of children who were suspected of being abused, during a secret internal church inquiry in 1975. Cardinal Brady did not put his version of events to the programme makers.
He is now under intense pressure to address in public the questions raised.
As a priest in 1975 Cardinal Brady interviewed victims and passed the information on to his superiors, but the children's parents were not informed and no action was taken against Smyth.
Some children were abused by the paedophile priest for years after the probe.