Sean Brady Steps Down

[johnneycool]

It was not an incident at school but at a leisure centre where I worked as a student and the abuser was far beyond school going age.

Yes the Catholic Church should have told the Police (as they do nowadays) as the best way to protect any organisation's reputation is to be open and honest. No Sean Brady is not responsible for those who had greater influence than him at the time, not telling the Police. Yes the parents should have told the police as well, but 1975 was a different age, and again,given the Police in collusion with both Church and UK Government moved another cleric on (who was strongly suspected of involvement in a fatal bombing), would telling the Police, by Brady or anyone else, have made any difference?

I am railing against the shameful absolute demonisation of Sean Brady not defending the mistakes he or the church made.

Your response to some people being shameful has been to be shameful as well - do you not see that?

Tony could teach Willie Frazer a thing or two about ignoring facts and carrying on regardless.

[haveaharp]

What about the questioning itself ? If the line of questioning was as alleged, and i am fairly certain it would have been, then surely anyone can see that Bradys performance in allowing the child to be effectively blamed with the inference of the questions was shameful in itself.

[Lar Naparka]

I believe he or someone should have told the Police, I also am aware that he has acknowledged his failings in this regard and has apologised.What I don't believe is that an error of judgement in a bygone era makes him an ogre, miserable b**tard or facilitator of child abuse.His failure was but one in a catalogue of failures at the time.

He is certainly not to blame for the abuse, and should not be cast in anything resembling the same light as an abuser, but he got the boys to sign an oath of silence, and then remained silent himself. From 1997 until 2010, while he was Primate of All Ireland, the records were not released to Brendan Boland as requested by his lawyer. During that time he never revealed his role, notary or otherwise, in Smyth's abuse. Then he (at best) understated his role as a notary (something you Tony, are still shouting from the rooftops) even though the records show he signed as an investigator at one of the two interviews. And the other man asking questions at the Boland interview, Msgr Francis Donnelly, told Gárdaí in an interview that his role was 'one of recording secretary'.

Donnelly refused to make a statement to the police and claimed that he couldn't remember the names of the two priests at the interview. Just 4 days later after Donnelly was interviewed by Gárdaí, Brady was ordained Coadjutor Archbishop of Armagh.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/book-has-evidence-of-cardinal-s-role-in-brendan-smyth-inquiry-1.1875988

The reason we are to talking about a 'bygone era' is his own fault. If he released the documents in 1997 this story would have happened in the late 1990s. If he had actually come clean when Cahal Daly was stepping down, we would be long over it, but of course he may not have been promoted. But he didn't reveal it then. The truth came out in 2010 only when he was forced to reveal it.

He is certainly not to blame for the abuse, and should not be cast in anything resembling the same light as an abuser

,
Nah, can't altogether agree with you on this one.

but he got the boys to sign an oath of silence, and then remained silent himself. From 1997 until 2010, while he was Primate of All Ireland, the records were not released to Brendan Boland as requested by his lawyer. During that time he never revealed his role, notary or otherwise, in Smyth's abuse.

There's my reasons for the disagreement.

I've said I could understand, sort of, Brady's silence at the time he interviewed the boy but by 1994, the moral attitude of the people had changed greatly. He was in doubt then that clerical child abuse was a crime in the eyes of the law and still he kept silent. Until 2010 when the media learned about that infamous interview and landed on Brady's doorstep, he maintained his silence.
He was, or should have been, in doubt then that he had a duty to contact the RUC and report the incident.
Brendan Smyth, in the later stage of life anyway, was completely deranged and incapable of making  rational decisions.
  Going by what we saw of him on TV after his arrest, he should have been in a psychiatric institution for a long time beforehand. Brady's mission when he conducted that interview had only one objective in mind. He was there to silence the boy and to pretend that action was going to be taken to stop Smyth from inflicting further harm on innocent children.
For me, he is at least as guilty as Smyth for anything that Smyth did afterwards.
BTW, every bishop, abbot, cardinal or whatever, right up to the Vatican must share the blame for what went on as their inaction allowed abusers to think they could act with impunity.

[T Fearon]

Carry on twisting yourself up in knots, but rest assured you are in the minority, and ask yourself why your views are not shared by the vast majority of the populace and other church leaders? Could it be they are just damn right unfair and totally out of perspective?

[Zip Code]

Carry on twisting yourself up in knots, but rest assured you are in the minority, and ask yourself why your views are not shared by the vast majority of the populace and other church leaders? Could it be they are just damn right unfair and totally out of perspective?

The populace at the moment consists of a small hard core of devoted Catholics and the rest who know Catholicism is rotten to the core and don't give a flying one about it.  In 30 years there will be no one at mass and the clergy will shite themselves that their money isn't rolling in.

[T Fearon]

Rubbish.Ffs Croke Park was filled to the rafters for mass last year,billions of people all over the world can't be wrong.Get a grip

[T Fearon]

Furthermore I would bet that if this thread is revisited in a decade many of the current anti Catholics  will be devout believers due to a life changing experience.The irony is that they will be welcomed back with open arms by the church they once despised

[Zip Code]

Rubbish.Ffs Croke Park was filled to the rafters for mass last year,billions of people all over the world can't be wrong.Get a grip

80,000 in a population of 4.5 million, amazing.  As for the billions, who comes up with that figure, did they do a census or just count developing countries whose children are probably being raped and abused by the priests as we speak.

[Zip Code]

Furthermore I would bet that if this thread is revisited in a decade many of the current anti Catholics  will be devout believers due to a life changing experience.The irony is that they will be welcomed back with open arms by the church they once despised

If you have a life changing experience is it only the Catholic God could be responsible, what about the Jewish one, the Hindu one, some kibbler from Scientology? 

[Lar Naparka]

Carry on twisting yourself up in knots, but rest assured you are in the minority, and ask yourself why your views are not shared by the vast majority of the populace and other church leaders? Could it be they are just damn right unfair and totally out of perspective?

Good man, Tone, you're in flying form today!
Can you point out one single point I made in my last post that you feel is untrue?
G'wan, challenge anything you like!
BTW,  why are you telling me that my views are not shared by the vast majority  of the populace and other church leaders?
Didn't muppet post a link to a 2010  RTE opinion poll where 3 out of every 4 people wanted the hoor to step down?
What has changed since then?
Church leaders, hah?
I'll tell you one who'd give Brady a good kick up the arse if he got half a chance.
Ever hear of Diarmuid Martin, the archbishop of Dublin?
Go ask him what he thinks of Brady and your attempts to defend him, while your are at it.

[T Fearon]

I think he should have stepped down for his own good,but that doesn't mean I or the vast majority of others think he's bad or the devil incarnate as many people on this thread feel.

[Hardy]

I think he should have stepped down for his own good,but that doesn't mean I or the vast majority of others think he's bad or the devil incarnate as many people on this thread feel.

Very good. Not for the sake of the victims, but for his own good.

Keep posting.

[Lar Naparka]

I think he should have stepped down for his own good,but that doesn't mean I or the vast majority of others think he's bad or the devil incarnate as many people on this thread feel.

Now, now Tone, you are evading the issue.
Point out anything you wish to challenge me on, like a good man.

[T Fearon]

I wonder does Sean Brady ponder the unfairness of life? Crucified for taking notes at a meeting and accurately reporting same,he must cast envious eyes at another ageing cleric,who after a lifetime of spreading hatred and causing multiple deaths as a result, now dresses in ermine and will be accorded a state funeral,attended by Kenny,Bruton,Ahern and other free state gobshites who will no doubt laud his great role as a peacemaker ( at the end of his career when he had no other choice).

I wonder does Cardinal Brady mutter ain't life a bitch, even occasionally?

[Hardy]

Tactic number 173A - diversion.
Use - in desperation; in the absence of a valid argument.
Other names - whataboutery, distraction, misdirection.
Application - the suggestion that particular wrongdoings by a particular person or group are not wrongdoings at all because some other person or group committed other wrongdoings.