Published: Thursday, 18th March, 2010 12:00pm

A time for cool heads

Laragh native son Cardinal Sean Brady is under pressure from abuse survivors and sections of the media to step down from his office as Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland over claims that he failed to take sufficient action to protect abuse victims he met in his capacity as secretary to the Bishop of Kilmore in 1975.

The then Fr. Brady, a teacher at St. Patrick's College and canon lawyer, acting on behalf of Bishop MacKiernan, conducted interviews with a boy and girl who claimed they were sexually abused by the late Fr. Brendan Smyth. All present at those meetings, including Fr. Brady and the complainants, were bound by an oath of secrecy, the norm in such cases at that time.

Cardinal Brady has strongly defended his handling of the case in 1975. He says that he did act effectively in that enquiry to produce the grounds for removing Fr. Smyth from ministry.

The clamour for Cardinal Brady's resignation is driven by an hysteria that is understandable given the public's abhorrence of child sex abuse. However, it is important that rationale should prevail. We must look at actions and events that take place in their time. It would now be tragic if Cardinal Brady felt compelled to resign over how the Church handled events 35 years ago. Surely the norms of the time have to be considered. In terms of the Catholic Church hierarchy at that time, Canon law almost always took precedence over state law. Things have changed much since then with the introduction of mandatory reporting and the implementation of stringent guidelines for the protection of children. Card inal Brady played a leading role in bringing this situation about. He should be recognised for the good he has done and allowed continue his work as Ireland's Primate.