They believe the Roman church and the Pope are infallible and answer to their god and not the law of the land.
That attitude is criminal... completely unacceptable.
They do not believe that at all, Papal infallibility is a very limited thing, it doesn't apply to everything the Papal Office does, neither does it apply to the Pope himself except under very specific conditions.
As for Cardinal Brady himself, in 1975 when the allegations date to, he was not a Cardinal, he was not in any position of authority other than being a young priest who was part of the investigation team sent to investigate the allegations made against Brendan Smyth.....He was only the note-taker in the meeting where the information was given.....he had no authority over Brendan Smyth and even his Bishop only had limited authority.
He did what he was charged to do and that was give the list of children to those who had the power to act, which is exactly what he did.
If there is any direct blame to be laid here with regard Brendan Smyth, it is with Brendan Smyths Monastery in Kilnacrott and the Abbot and the elders of the Nobertine Order to which Smyth belonged as it was their responsibility to not only censure Smyth. but inform both the Police and the Parents of the children of what had been going on.
That is not to say that Brady is blameless, the whole affair was poorly dealt with, although there was no Church or State guidelines about what to do in this situation in 1975, it is pretty obvious to anyone that the needs of the Church, specifically the Nobertine Order and the Monastery, were put ahead of the needs of those children and that even if Brady had no authority to deal with Smyth himself, he certainly had the opportunity to make sure someone who would deal with it properly was informed when it became patently obvious that Smyth was effectively being protected, he may have
trusted that those with the authority to act in relation to Smyth would treat the evidence seriously and respond appropriately, but when he realised that was not happening then he could have taken it further. ......the fact is that the then Fr Brady went along with the party line and the secrecy of the investigation because he wanted to progress within the hierarchy of the Church, when in fact his first responsibility and the first responsibility of all priests is to their congregation, in particular those who cannot protect themselves such as those children, in this he failed and for that he should resign.
Being objective it should also be mentioned that Cardinal Brady has been instrumental in putting child protection measures in place so that this kind of thing is not repeated and is dealt with properly when and if it is........not that excuses him in his failure to respond appropriately to his responsibilities as a priest, which he is patently guilty of, even if not in quite the way the media would like to make out.
