Cardinal Brady apologises to abuse victim Brendan Boland, Brendan Boland welcomes Cardinal Seán Brady apology

If the right thing had been done by Father (now Cardinal) Brady, and Bishop McKiernan, the unspeakable abuse of the other children I had sought to save would not have happened.”

Cardinal Brady apologises to abuse victim Brendan Boland 7 May 2012

Cardinal Sean Brady has said he wants to personally apologise to a man who was abused as a 14-year-old boy by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.

Cardinal Brady has come under pressure after a BBC documentary.

It accused him of failing to act on abuse allegations when he was a priest.

He said he had no intention of stepping aside but hoped an assistant – with succession rights – would be quickly appointed to his archdiocese.

Speaking to Irish broadcaster RTE on Monday, Cardinal Brady said he wanted to “apologise without hesitation” to Brendan Boland “and to any victim”.

“I offered that apology last Christmas, I offered to come and see him in person,” he said…..

Last week, a BBC documentary uncovered new revelations about an internal Church investigation into clerical child sex abuse in 1975.

It said a teenage boy who had been sexually abused by Fr Brendan Smyth gave the names and addresses of other children who were at risk from the paedophile priest to Cardinal Brady, who at that time was a 36-year-old priest.

He passed the allegations to his superiors but did not inform the police or the children’s parents.

Fr Smyth continued to sexually assault one of the boys for a year after that.

He also abused the boy’s sister for seven years, and four of his cousins, up until 1988. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-17984642

Brendan Boland welcomes Cardinal Seán Brady apology

Tuesday, 8 May 2012

Brendan Boland who, as a 14-year-old boy, was sworn to secrecy by Cardinal Seán Brady after testifying that he had been sexually abused by the paedophile Fr Brendan Smyth, has welcomed the Cardinal’s public apology to him….

Mr Boland added: “I note that Cardinal Brady has now acknowledged that the information I gave him regarding other children being abused or at risk of abuse, should have been passed on to their parents in 1975.

“When I confided in the Youth Club to Father McShane in 1975, he did the right and proper thing in immediately bringing me to my parents and telling them what had been happening to me. It was only after that, that he informed his Superiors.

“If the right thing had been done by Father (now Cardinal) Brady, and Bishop McKiernan, the unspeakable abuse of the other children I had sought to save would not have happened. Both Cardinal Brady and I will have to live with our guilt in that regard.” http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0508/brendan-boland-welcomes-cardinal-brady-apology.html

Cardinal Brady should face criminal probe says Smyth child victim, Human Trafficking in Canada

articles:
- Church crisis: Cardinal Brady should face criminal probe says Smyth child victim
- Abuse survivor: Without courage or integrity Cardinal Brady failed and it is unforgivable
- In full: Cardinal Brady responds to allegations over role in abuse inquiry
- Professor Perrin Appointed Special Advisor to the Prime Minister (first book, Invisible Chains: Canada’s Underground World of Human Trafficking)

Church crisis: Cardinal Brady should face criminal probe says Smyth child victim

By Independent.ie reporters

Friday May 04 2012

A WOMAN, who was sexually abused as a child by paedophile priest Brendan Smyth, today called for a criminal investigation into the actions of Cardinal Sean Brady.

American lawyer Helen McGonigle, (50) who now campaigns for survivors of clerical sexual abuse, said the All Ireland Primate should resign for not alerting other families to Smyth’s horrific catalogue of abuse.

She was molested by Smyth in the late 1960s in Rhode Island, New York.

Speaking to BBC Radio Ulster today, Ms McGonigle said she was “outraged” by Cardinal Brady’s response to allegations in a BBC documentary broadcast this week.

She said Cardinal Sean Brady’s “duty as a human” was to protect children and his failure to act properly on Brendan Boland’s complaint – when he named other five other children being abused – was “unforgivable”.

The Cardinal had shown “arrogance and insensitivity”, Ms McGonigle said.

She was just six-years-old and preparing for the sacrament of penance when she was abused by Smyth, who led her from her classmates into the sacristy of the church where he molested her….

Smyth was already known to have sexually molested children when he was sent to the McGonigles’ parish in the summer of 1965. Using his usual modus operandi, he befriended the family and they bonded over a shared Irish ancestry.

Speaking to the Irish Independent two years ago, Ms McGonigle, who is an attorney living in Connecticut, said: “From 1967 until about 1970 he molested me. He was caught in my parish molesting children as early as 1968….

While any intervention by Cardinal Brady in 1975 would have been too late to save the children of East Greenwich, Ms McGonigle said many others could have been protected….

She said Cardinal Brady must resign and he should be charged with obstruction of justice.

“He sat on this knowledge for 35 years, from 1975 through to 2010, and Brendan Smith continued to abuse children. It is only because of the lawsuit one of his victims has brought that he has had to show his hand.”
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/church-crisis-cardinal-brady-should-face-criminal-probe-says-smyth-child-victim-3099251.html

Abuse survivor: Without courage or integrity Cardinal Brady failed and it is unforgivable  5/3/12

….Now an executive director of Amnesty International Ireland, O’Gorman was not satisfied with the similar but weak defence offered by Scicluna and Brady yesterday that back in 1975 Brady was only a ‘notary’ in the interviews.

“Authority is not needed to walk into a Garda station to report the abuse and rape of children. It takes courage and a sense of moral decency,” he said, adding that it was important to remember that Brady was a highly-educated and qualified Canon lawyer at the time. He was also 35-years-old.

Commenting on the atrocious acts of Smyth that spanned a forty-year period, O’Gorman recalls the level of terror still visible in Brendan Smyth’s victims years later as something “extraordinary”.
http://www.thejournal.ie/abuse-survivor-without-courage-or-integrity-cardinal-brady-failed-and-it-is-unforgiveable-437703-May2012/

In full: Cardinal Brady responds to allegations over role in abuse inquiry 5/2/12  http://www.thejournal.ie/in-full-cardinal-brady-responds-to-allegations-over-role-in-abuse-inquiry-437208-May2012/

Professor Perrin Appointed Special Advisor to the Prime Minister

UBC Law Professor Benjamin Perrin has recently been appointed as Special Advisor, Legal Affairs & Policy in the Prime Minister’s Office in Ottawa….

In 2010, Professor Perrin published his first book, Invisible Chains: Canada’s Underground World of Human Trafficking (Penguin Canada, 2010). The book, an expose on the issue of human trafficking in Canada, was named one of the top books of the year by The Globe and Mail.

He has testified before a number of Parliamentary committees studying the issue of human trafficking and child sexual exploitation. In 2010, Parliament adopted Bill C-268, a private members’ bill calling for mandatory minimum sentences for child traffickers. Professor Perrin proposed and helped draft the bill, which was first introduced to the House of Commons in January 2009 by Member of Parliament Joy Smith….

Professor Perrin…is co-editor of Human Trafficking: Exploring the International Nature, Concerns and Complexities (CRC Press, 2011), and editor of Modern Warfare: Armed Groups, Private Militaries, Humanitarian Organizations and the Law (UBC Press, 2012). http://www.law.ubc.ca/news/2012/may/05_01_12_perrin.html

Pope slams cardinal who exposed abuse cover-up, controversial priest promoted

also:
Cavan religious order to be sued by American victims of paedophile priest (paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth)

Pope slams cardinal who exposed abuse cover-up Nicole Winfield, Associated Press
June 29, 2010 Vatican City – The Vatican on Monday issued an unprecedented rebuke of a top cardinal who had accused the retired Vatican No. 2 of blocking clerical sex abuse investigations, publicly dressing down a man who had been praised for his criticism of church abuse cover-ups. The silencing of Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, the archbishop of Vienna and long considered a papal contender, drew heated criticism from clerical abuse victims. They said the Vatican should be honoring Schoenborn, not publicly humiliating him, for his calls for greater transparency and demands for a crackdown on priests who rape and sodomize children. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2010/06/29/MNRF1E68UI.DTL

Vatican promotes controversial Quebec priest Wed Jun 30, By The Canadian Press
VATICAN CITY – The Vatican has promoted Canada’s highest-ranking Catholic priest despite recent controversy over his response to the church sex-abuse scandal. Marc Cardinal Ouellet has been named chief of the Vatican’s powerful Congregations for Bishops, which vets bishop appointments around the world. Sixty-six year old Ouellet is the Archbishop of Quebec and the Roman Catholic Primate of Canada, the church’s top official in the country. Earlier this month, a victims’ group said Ouellet had refused to apologize for crimes committed within the church. http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/100630/national/crime_priest_ouellet

Cavan religious order to be sued by American victims of paedophile priest Ali Bracken, Crime Correspondent 6/27/10 THE NORBertine order in Co Cavan that deceased paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth was attached to is facing a multi-million dollar lawsuit in the US as two of his victims are suing over the sexual abuse he inflicted….Jeff Thomas was just seven years old in 1968 when Smyth began to abuse him in Rhode Island. Helen McGonigle was six years old when she was first assaulted by the priest in 1967. The abuse continued for three years. McGonigle’s family, of Irish descent, were members of Our Lady of Mercy Catholic church in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, and it was here that they came into contact with Smyth.

A master manipulator, he infiltrated her family’s daily life. He also sexually abused her older sister Kathleen under the pretence of preparing her for the sacrament of penance. Kathleen and her brother Gerard both died from drug overdoses as a result of the abuse Smyth perpetrated against them. Her mother also spent time in a mental institution. In 1994, Smyth was convicted of 17 counts of sexual abuse in a Belfast court. Three years later in Dublin, he pleaded guilty to another 74 counts of abuse. In 1997, Smyth died in prison.
http://www.tribune.ie/article/2010/jun/27/cavan-religious-order-to-be-sued-by-american-victi/