Last night whilst most viewers were watching ‘reality’ sitcom The Apprentice I was watching the story of catholic clerical child rape and cover-up in Ireland. What it revealed was shocking, made more repugnant by the mealy-mouthed ‘Nuremberg defence’ of Cardinal Brady, the Irish primate.
A 14 year-old boy who was being raped by a priest bravely reported this to the hierarchy. He gave the names and addresses of other children at risk. He was asked all kinds of vile questions during the interview. Afterwards, he was sworn to secrecy. One of the boys he sought to protect was also subjected to the same heinous process, also sworn to secrecy. His parents were not even told about what was going on. Throughout, bishop’s secretary and canon lawyer, Brady, wrote it all down. And did nothing. The children continued to be raped for another THIRTEEN years. And Brady said nothing.
He ‘did his duty’ and was ‘not in a position to do anything’ and ‘there was no system’ for dealing with this at the time. He even lies about the nature of the vow the children were forced to make. At any time he could have taken those notes to the police. He could have spoken to the parents of the children to ensure their safety at least. But he did nothing. He kept silent. And the children, bound by the force of a vow on the bible administered by him, another priest, to whom they had gone for help, dare not say anything.
This man pretends to preach on morality and ethics. He pretends to be a ‘man of god’. What kind of ‘man’ allows these horrors to go on? For what – to protect the reputation of the Catholic Church? So these children were systematically raped, with his full knowledge, because preventing it was a greater evil?
Even the monsters who were performing the crimes cannot be compared to this thing, this less-than-human – words fail to describe the utterly abhorrent nature of this ‘prince of the church’, who would not raise a finger to protect a child.
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You really do need to read Chapter Seven ("The Catholic, Left-Wing and All-Ireland Case for the Union") and Chapter Ten (which sets the record straight on the Catholic Church and child abuse, AIDS in Africa, the Holocaust and the Spanish Inquisition) of Confession of an Old Labour High Tory by, ahem, David Lindsay.
ReplyDeleteThanks for you comment. Whilst I'm sure your book is enlightening, my point is that Brady's omission is a moral failing, he made a choice which resulted in the continued and prolonged suffering of these children. His choice makes no sense to any reasonable adult, whose primary concern would be to protect the children and ensure that the pederast was brought to justice. As far as I am aware, he never volunteered any of this information. Did he make this choice.in order to protect the church? I do find his action repugnant. The moral imperative would apply to anyone in any position. The fact that he was a ranking priest in the local Curia, and now is a cardinal, amplifies that. The way that they swore the children to secrecy, a vow that one of the children has not broken until now (!) is also shocking. The children's faith was used against them. There can be no excuse for this.
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