Tag Archives: Cardinal Sean Brady

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Cardinal Sean Brady, top, whose resignation letter was accepted by Pope Francis yesterday, and RTÉ’s Tommie Gorman on the Nine News last night

Did you catch Tommie Gorman’s bizarre report on the resignation of Séan Brady last night?

Grab a tay. It gets very unctuous.

Eileen Dunne: “Tommie, the whole sexual abuse [issue] dominated Cardinal Brady’s time in office but there was more to his time in Armagh than that?”

Tommie Gorman: “There was Eileen. I remember at the time the Brendan Smyth story first broke, a very senior politician asked one of his advisors ‘what’s a paed-eo-phile?’. He didn’t understand the nature of evil or, indeed, he didn’t understand its consequences. And I think the problem for Seán Brady was he had evil people reporting to him, he was responsible for them. And I think in the later years of his life, you could see that he carried the burden of that knowledge, he carried that pain. But there was an awful lot more to him. He was very big into church relations. He was the first primate to officially meet Ian Paisley. He worked very hard behind the scenes and up front, in relation to the peace process. He came from a Border county. He was a very generous man. Those people who knew him in Cavan, those people who knew him when he was a parish priest, those people who knew him in Rome, talked about his kindness to people. The small little acts, not in a public way at all. I also think it can be said about him, with pure certainty, that he’s not a vain person, there’s not an ounce of vanity in him. And I think he will be remembered for those qualities as well. And one final point about him, I don’t think anyone will doubt that, throughout his life, that he tried to be consistent to his vocation, that he tried to be faithful to his vocation.”

Jay.

Sus.

Watch back in full here

Previously: Goodbye Sean Brady

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oath

The oath of secrecy signed in 1975 by Brendan Boland (top) and [then] Fr John Brady after Brendan had revealed he had been repeatedly raped and tortured by Fr Brendan Smyth over a three year period

Brendan, then 14, said he hoped that by reporting the crimes to Fr Brady (and two other priests)  it would end the abuse for himself and others.

Before signing, and while Fr Brady was taking notes, Brendan was asked “relentlessly” about his own sexual impulses, behaviour and whether he had “enjoyed” the abuse.

It was not until 1994 that Fr Smyth was convicted of four decades of sex crimes against children.

Cardinal Séan Brady offers pope his resignation (BBC)

Pics via Sworn To Secrecy By Brendan Boland and Darrah MacIntyre (O’BrienPress)

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Abuse survivor Marie Kane told Pope Francis that “cover-up is still happening and you have the power to make these changes.” There were others besides Cardinal Brady, she said, but “I didn’t want to go into a litany.”
Pope Francis responded that “it was difficult to make these changes,” Marie said, “but it’s a big thing with me that Seán Brady is gone.”

Irish abuse victim tells Pope she wants Cardinal Brady removed (Patsy McGarry, Irish Times)

Pope Francis Asks Victims of Sex Abuse for Forgiveness (New York Times)

Previously: Cardianl Brady Accused

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“I know that for you, survivors of abuse and your families, days such as today are especially difficult. You have suffered terribly and I am truly sorry. I pray for you and will work to ensure that you are supported on your journey towards healing and peace.I accept this Report in its entirety and, with the cooperation of our safeguarding personnel, I undertake to act promptly on its recommendations.”

Cardinal Sean Brady

 

Cardinal Brady ‘Truly Sorry’ For Child Abuse (Belfast Telegraph)

(Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland)

Earlier: No Hell For Leather

Finally.

Michael Kelly, editor of the Irish Catholic, spoke earlier with Gavin Jennings on RTE R1’s Morning Ireland to reveal that the Vatican is replacing Cardinal Sean Brady.

Gavin Jennings: “Some big news expected this morning on the Irish Catholic Church at around noon, Rome time?”

Michael Kelly: “Noon, Rome time. 11 o’clock Irish time, Gavin. They’re going to announce that Cardinal Sean Brady is to be replaced as Primate of All-Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh. Now, it won’t be a straight replacement, it’ll be a phased job if you like. What they’re appointing is, what’s known as a coadjutor archbishop.”

Jennings: “What’s that?“

Kelly: “That’s someone who will shadow the cardinal in the short term but eventually will take over. They have a  right of succession so they’re not like an auxillary bishop like that we would have in many diocese around the country that are assistant bishops, they just assist the bishop. This is someone who has the right to succeed the cardinal and probably will do so very, very quickly.”

Jennings: “The last time that we’ve had cardinal coadjutors: 2003, when Diarmuid Martin came in as one to Cardinal Desmond Connell. 1994, when Sean Brady was appointed coadjutor to Cardinal Daly. In both cases, Connell and Daly were the subject of criticism because of their handling of child sex abuse scandals. The Vatican is following course again?”

Kelly: “This is the Vatican’s way, if you like, when a bishop becomes extremely wounded – as Cardinal Brady is; as Cardinal Connell was, at the time, when Archbishop Martin came home from Rome. If you like, it’s a way to allow the person to be replaced, to, if you like, to, for their resignation to be accepted, but still they can go at a time of their own choosing so this new person, who will be appointed today, will shadow Cardinal Brady, probably for a period of three or four months. Archbishop Martin was a lot longer in the wings than he had been expecting and I think a lot of church people had been expecting. But I think Cardinal Brady will be replaced definitively within three or four months. Already he’s disengaged from a lot of ecclesiastical stuff, he’s been very vocal obviously on the issue of abortion. And the Vatican knows, the church knows, that this is something where they need someone with a lot of moral credibility.”

Jennings: “Michael, who do you think it will be?”

Kelly: “It’s very, this is one of the most tight-lipped things that has been in recent times, in the church.”

Jennings: “Go on.”

Kelly: “I know they’ve searched overseas, I know they’ve searched within Ireland. I know a number of people have turned it down, so I think, still at this stage, it’s anyone’s game. Even senior bishops were only notified late last night that it was even happening.”

Jennings: “Ok. Spoil sport.”

According to a report in today’s Irish Times Brady will be leading a church group in a meeting with the Government today. The agenda is expected to include abortion legislation, school patronage and the divesting of Catholic-run schools to other patron bodies. ‘

Previously: Brady And The Victims

Cardinal Brady: More Than Just A Note Taker

Cardinal Brady: Accused

Fr Vincent Twomey: Where’s The Humanity?”

(Eamonn Farrell/Photocall Ireland)

Good tidings to all men?

Kinda.

In his Christmas message, the Catholic Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland said there is no more important value than upholding the right to life in all circumstances.
“I hope that everyone who believes that the right to life is fundamental will make their voice heard in a reasonable, but forthright, way to their representatives,” Cardinal Sean Brady said in his Christmas message.
“No government has the right to remove that right from an innocent person.”
The cardinal criticised the failure to prioritise the elimination of child poverty in the reform of the tax and welfare system, remarking that in any jurisdiction a failure on such a fundamental rights issue is unworthy of a society which claims to have a paramount concern for children.

 

Cardinal Seán Brady Reiterates Catholic Church’s Anti-abortion Stance (irish Times)

(James Horan/Photocall Ireland)

By His Eminem-inence , who sez:

Such was my anger that I put pen to paper to ask ‘Why is it that we have seen no resignations in the wake of these horrifying revelations?’. It’s been fascinating to watch the BBC/Jimmy Savile case break in the UK as we’ve been editing this video over the last few days. Say what you like, but there has been accountability within that organisation. And they don’t claim to be our moral guardians…

 

Thanks Bongobob and Ros Kavanagh

Bring them on.

It is a matter for the Catholic Church authorities whether this person [Cardinal Sean Brady] should remain in his position as head of the Irish Catholic Church. It is a matter for the rest of us to point out that such people, who even to this day think they did nothing wrong, are not credible advocates for any moral cause. Furthermore, the cabal of bishops who surround Brady, and who have defended his actions, are equally unfit for moral combat.

…Of course abortion is a moral issue, and right at the heart of whether a woman should opt to bear a child or not for up to nine months, is a critical moral decision.

The only issue in the debate on abortion is whether it should be left to the woman to take this moral decision for herself, or whether the state should intervene and criminalise her were she, for whatever reason, to decide that she should not bear the child, depending on her sustenance.

Because of the dysfunctional misogynistic character of our society – which, incidentally, the Catholic Church has done so much to foster – it can only be the woman herself who can make that moral decision. The intervention of the state or any other agency or person in that decision is an abuse of the woman’s autonomy and personhood.

So if the bishops have the bottle to engage in public debate on a moral issue, bring them on. But, one suspects, their sense of self-importance, allied to a traditional and well-nurtured cowardice, will caution them to be selective in the battles they join.

 

Insufferable Preaching From Cabals Of Cowards (Vincent Browne, Politico.ie)

(Photocall Ireland)

“I have always believed in the separation of church and State. I think it is the job of Government and of the State to enact our laws and to ensure that those laws apply to everybody whether they belong to a church or not. It is my own personal view that anybody who did not deal with the scale of the abuse that we have seen in this case should not hold a position of authority.”

Eamon Gilmore, this morning.

Tanaiste: In My Personal View Cardinal Brady Should Resign (Breaking News)
Meanwhile, a heavenly typo: