The cardinal knew of coverage abuser 'up'19: 58 14/03/2010, Henry McDonald, Riazat Butt, Tom Kington, Catholicism, guardian.co.uk, Ireland, Italy, new

The cardinal knew of coverage abuser 'up'19: 58 14/03/2010, Henry McDonald, Riazat Butt, Tom Kington, Catholicism, guardian.co.uk, Ireland, Italy, news, world news, Guardian Unlimited

The group of victims, "says Sean Brady should consider resigning as head of the Catholic Church in Ireland on the paper in court Brendan Smyth

Most of Ireland, the senior Catholic cleric is under pressure to resign after revealing he was in a secret court that victims of sexual abuse took an oath of silence. Cardinal Sean Brady, said he attended two meetings on the Father Brendan Smyth, a known pedophile, where two of the victims of Smyth signed an affidavit promising to discuss their demands given only to a priest.

Brady is being sued - as an individual and their role as Catholic primate of all Ireland - one of the women victims of Smyth who alleges he was abused for five years.

In an affidavit filed in the High Court in Dublin, Brady is accused of failing to report the grievances of the victims signed the police in Ireland and not taking appropriate measures to ensure that Smyth did not continue to assault children.

The court was held behind closed doors in 1975. Smyth was charged with molesting two 10 year olds, but the church did not inform the Garda on the allegations at the time. It was only in 1994 after a documentary about Smyth, the Church admitted that it knew of his pedophilia and moved around Ireland, Britain and the U.S., where he continued to abuse children.

Smyth died in prison 13 years ago, while serving 12 years for 74 sexual assaults against children.

The disclosure of Brady lots more ignominy in the Vatican, which has suffered a week of negative stories about the treatment of victims of church sexual abuse of children and their arguments.

New incidents are recorded on an almost daily basis throughout Europe, such as official inquiries into historical claims, with each development is eroding the credibility of the church and moral authority.

Not even the Pope has escaped the taint of scandal. Last weekend, a spokesman for the Vatican took the unprecedented step of denying that Benedict XVI was complicit in covering up a sex scandal when he was archbishop of Munich.

Support groups for victims in Ireland who repeatedly struck the church and state authorities for their conduct, Brady condemned and called for his resignation. The co-founder of Irish Survivors of Child Abuse, Patrick Walsh, said: "The church was more interested in protecting its reputation than anything else. The cardinal has to examine his conscience about this. Needsto The balance of his position. In 1975 it was just a priest who acts as secretary and was not making decisions. But he knew what was happening. "

The Catholic Information Office of Ireland confirmed that Brady had been the recording secretary in a meeting and interviewed victims in another. The oath, he said, was "to respect the confidentiality of the information process.

Brady had spent the reports "as indicated, and as a matter of urgency" to Bishop [Francis] McKiernan "for their immediate action."

The behavior of the Cardinal will do little to reverse the perception that the church does not have the problem of child sexual abuse seriously enough, despite Vatican efforts to show that the problem is not limited only to their institutions nor as widespread as people think.

A front-page article today in L'Osservatore Romano, said the sexual abuse of children is "more common among lay people and married people than among celibate priests" - a response to an archbishop claim that celibacy can be one of the causes of pedophilia in the priesthood.

The bishop of Alexandria, Giuseppe Versaldi, who wrote the article, said that Pope Benedict active leader in the "battle" against pedophilia., Despite its image as "an academic who is only interested in writing books."

His comments echo those of the Vatican official charged with investigating allegations of sexual abuse suggests that many reported abuses were not pedophilia.

Monsignor Charles Scicluna, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said the 3,000 cases referred to his office for a period of nine years, only one tenth is pedophilia "in the truest sense."

Interviewed by the Italian newspaper Avvenire, said: "About 60% of cases mainly involved the sexual attraction to adolescents of the same sex, another 30% were heterosexual, 10% is pedophilia in the true sense based on sexual attraction to prepubescent children. The cases of priests accused of pedophilia in the true sense have been around 300 in nine years. "

The 300 cases were "too many", but urged people to recognize that the phenomenon was not as widespread as believed.

Scicluna said a full trial, criminal or administrative, had occurred in 20% of these cases. Old age often prevented the defendants from standing trial, or administrative and disciplinary provisions, such as the prohibition of hearing confession served as a substitute. Half of the trials ended in dismissal, while the other half saw the accused to apply for immunity of the priesthood.

Scicluna insisted that the Vatican had never encouraged a coverup of sexual abuse of children, but also admitted that "perhaps a misdirected desire to protect the good name of the institution, some bishops were, in practice, too lenient with this sad phenomenon. "

He added: "They say that in practice because, in principle, the condemnation of this type of crime has always been firm and unequivocal."

Bad week for the Vatican

George Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI's brother admits slapping chorus and ignoring physical abuse in a primary school, but denies knowing of abuse allegations at the school.


Catholic hierarchy in the commitment of the Netherlands an independent, external inquiry into abuse in the church of several institutions run.


Austrian priest quits, admitting he abused or molested up to 20 children.


Archbishop of Vienna said that priestly celibacy may be the cause of pedophilia.


The Pope is "distressed" by the sexual abuse scandal in Germany. Catholic apology country's most senior victims and church authorities promised to investigate.


Swiss Catholic Church launches investigation of 60 allegations of sexual abuse.


The pope's spokesman denounced the attempts to involve the Pope in a sex abuse, and rejects accusations of a culture of secrecy.


An Italian academic compares the secret about sexual abuse of Omerta - mafia code of silence - and said that greater participation of women in the church might have prevented the magnitude of the coverup.


An Irish bookmaker odds bars, 12 to 1 to 3 to 1, of a papal resignation amid the ongoing controversy and a "cascade of bets".

Ireland
Catholicism
Italy
Henry McDonald
Riazat Butt
Tom Kington


guardian.co.uk © Guardian News