Clerical abuse!

[T Fearon]

I am not excusing the Catholic church's historic mishandling of child abuse,but if I was a young priest charged with a horrific task of recording allegations of child abuse,back in 1975,and I reported accurately my findings to my superiors,I would have a clear conscience.

[muppet]

I know.CEO of multi million pound operation,and female to boot,fails to suspend paedophile while junior priest tells all he heard to his superiors immediately.

Twist it whatever way you want. Neither are excusable despite your continued attempts to excuse one.

He reported it to HIS superiors. And no one else.

He failed the victims and their families. He failed to stop Smyth. By silencing the victims he spoke to, he made it far more likely that nothing would happen to Smyth and his abuse could continue.

He then covered it up for years and years, so that the easily led could claim this all happened years ago, as if that is a defence. The reason it didn't come to light at the time was down to people like Sean Brady. Children were raped and he could have stopped it.

As for Byrne, she screwed up, but at least she had the decency to recognise that and resign. But no children were raped because of her inaction.

And remember, Brady had a Doctorate in Canon Law, had been ordained 11 years at that stage, and was older than Byrne is now. Arguing that he was young and somehow couldn't have known that he should do more to stop a man who raped children, is not much of an argument.

[smelmoth]

I am not excusing the Catholic church's historic mishandling of child abuse,but if I was a young priest charged with a horrific task of recording allegations of child abuse,back in 1975,and I reported accurately my findings to my superiors,I would have a clear conscience.

Absolute nonsense.

Report it to the police. If you reported it to your superiors you would ask them what they had done. If you had any suspicion that they had done nothing or shifted the problem on you would go the police, If the abuser was moved on and had access to new victims you would revisit the wisdom of silencing earlier victims. If you had failed to any of this and later became aware of large-scale, serial and horrific allegations against the same perpetrator you would act then. You would comply with and not attempt to frustrate any attempt at justice for victims and the perpetrator. Well if you had any decency that is.

[smelmoth]

Tony
Before posting on this matter ask yourself a simple question "If I know this statement to be a lie should I go ahead and post it".

If you could adhere to just this one thing many of your posts would still be horrific and lacking in any form of decency, morality, rational thought or compassion but less so and crucially there would less of them

[imtommygunn]

I am not excusing the Catholic church's historic mishandling of child abuse,but if I was a young priest charged with a horrific task of recording allegations of child abuse,back in 1975,and I reported accurately my findings to my superiors,I would have a clear conscience.

You are making excuses - not for the catholic church but for an individual.

The fact that you would have a clear conscience says more about you than it does about anything else.

If you try hard enough you can rationalise anything. You could rationalise what the sunderland ceo did if you put your mind to it but it would just be excuses. Again.

[T Fearon]

Sean Brady was vilified by all and sundry for his actions as a young priest 40 years ago,as if he was Cardinal then.It is my view that he told his superiors,this does not constitute inaction,an attempt to cover up or anything else.He has every right to live with a clear conscience.Undoubtedly he would have done things differently today,as Margaret Byrne should have done,knowing now what he didn't know then.

[imtommygunn]

You are right - it is your view.

Undoubtedly he would have done things differently today is again your view.

[Hardy]

This is very confusing. Why would he do things differently today if there was nothing wrong with how he did things then?

[T Fearon]

We all do things differently as we learn from experience.There is no excuse today for anyone,on hearing allegations of abuse,not immediately informing the authorities.The basic problem in the 70s,in informing the authorities is that it often made no difference,as was the case of another cleric allegedly involved in the Claudy bombing,who was never questioned but moved across the border by the authorities.

Sean Brady was not in any way responsible for Brendan Smyth or his long career of abuse,many others were though

[muppet]

We all do things differently as we learn from experience.There is no excuse today for anyone,on hearing allegations of abuse,not immediately informing the authorities.The basic problem in the 70s,in informing the authorities is that it often made no difference,as was the case of another cleric allegedly involved in the Claudy bombing,who was never questioned but moved across the border by the authorities.

Sean Brady was not in any way responsible for Brendan Smyth or his long career of abuse,many others were though

He silenced the 2 victims that he spoke to.

He told no one, other than people with vested interests that conflicted with the interests of the children. He had the chance to stop one of the greatest monsters in the history of this island, and not only did he fail, but he silenced those who may have been able to stop Smyth.

If he has a clear conscience then there is something seriously wrong.

[T Fearon]

He didn't silence anyone. Did he remove their tongues? Did their parents not question why they were summonsed to a meeting and what happened at that meeting? For what it's worth,swearing children to an oath of silence was a bizarre part of canon law,which was never justified,for whatever reason,even misguidedly to keep them quiet while the church completed its investigations.But you have to separate the person from what he did which he naively believed to be right at the time.Is there any one of us that can reflect on the handling of situations a long time ago and not cringe?

[Main Street]

We all do things differently as we learn from experience.There is no excuse today for anyone,on hearing allegations of abuse,not immediately informing the authorities.The basic problem in the 70s,in informing the authorities is that it often made no difference,as was the case of another cleric allegedly involved in the Claudy bombing,who was never questioned but moved across the border by the authorities.

Sean Brady was not in any way responsible for Brendan Smyth or his long career of abuse,many others were though

Quite frankly Tony, you deny and pour scorn those in Florida  who gave evidence against pedophile enabling. Instead you supported their persecution.
You deny prosecutions  in Minneapolis brought against the CC about pedophile enabling and deny legal judgements made against the CC for their complete lack of standards to take action against pedophile enabling in that state.
Your words  are squeamish. You're even an embarrassment to the opus dei faction of the CC.

[muppet]

He didn't silence anyone. Did he remove their tongues? Did their parents not question why they were summonsed to a meeting and what happened at that meeting? For what it's worth,swearing children to an oath of silence was a bizarre part of canon law,which was never justified,for whatever reason,even misguidedly to keep them quiet while the church completed its investigations.But you have to separate the person from what he did which he naively believed to be right at the time.Is there any one of us that can reflect on the handling of situations a long time ago and not cringe?

You would disown a family member because of something written by an unknown author 2,500 years ago. But you want to forget about hiding sex abusers and silencing witnesses 40 years ago?

[T Fearon]

I have said on many occasions the church's mishandling of child abuse in the past was woeful.Senior Church people,like Bishop John Mc Areavey have admitted that the impact on victims was not even considered or indeed understood and that shamefully the priority was the protection of the Church's reputation.

But the savage vilification of Sean Brady in particular is equally disgraceful.He reported what he heard,as a Junior Priest,to his superiors,in the belief that they would act accordingly.

[imtommygunn]

This is very confusing. Why would he do things differently today if there was nothing wrong with how he did things then?

I agree.

Do you mean if he was the same age today as he was then or do you mean if he had to deal with it at current age tony?