Cardinal Brady and leadership of the Church

In May 1920, Pope Benedict XV declared the Archbishop of Armagh, Oliver Plunkett as 'Blessed', paving the way for sainthood for the seventeenth century Oldcastle-native martyr. Two years earlier, Benedict had declared Oliver a martyr for his underground work spreading the faith in Ireland in the 1600s, which led to him being hung, drawn and quartered in Tyburn, London, in 1681. During that era of persecutions, there were very few bishops operating in Ireland, many of them in exile. Oliver Plunkett's cousin, Patrick Plunkett of the Killeen family, the Bishop of Meath, was one bishop working in Ireland, much of it also underground. At a meeting of bishops in Dublin in 1670, a dispute broke out between Dr Plunkett and the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Peter Talbot, on the question of leadership. The See of Armagh had always been recognised as the primatial see, and this was undisputed among the immediate predecessors of both prelates. Three years later, the Dublin archbishop had to flee as persecutions began again. Four centuries after those tough times for the Church, we have the next Pope Benedict, the sixteenth, two archbishops seemingly at odds, and further difficult times, this time not caused by persecution, but by numerous members of its own clergy carrying out sexual and physical abuse of children. It has been a difficult 15 years for the Catholic Church in Ireland, and its members, and indeed for all those good priests and religious who have been serving their parishes and people to the best of their abilities, as enunciated by the Taoiseach Enda Kenny in the national parliament recently. Allegations, court cases, and numerous reports into abuse by diocesan priests, members of religious orders, not only priests and brothers, but nuns as well, going back to the Goldenbridge situation in Inchicore in the 1990s. What is very badly needed at this time is strong leadership in the Catholic Church in Ireland, if it is to hold on to its ever decreasing flock. The State has been seen as providing strong and sober leadership in recent times, as the positive response to Mr Kenny's remarks in Dail Eireann has shown. However, there is a vacuum in Church leadership in Ireland, due to the fact that the current primate of All Ireland, the Archbishop of Armagh, Cardinal Sean Brady, is not seen as the man to lead the Church out of this crisis. There may not be a dispute over the leadership of the Irish Church, as there was in the days of Archbishop Oliver Plunkett, but it is clear which archbishop is providing leadership in the present crisis, and it is not coming from Ara Coeli. It is the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, who is in touch with the thoughts and feelings of the people, and for his troubles, appears to have been left out on a limb. Perhaps there is a need to review here the reasons why Sean Brady lacks credibility as the leader of the Church in Ireland. In his capacity as secretary to the bishop of Kilmore in 1975, he was at meetings in the 1970s where two abused teenagers signed vows of silence over their complaints against Fr Brendan Smyth. When this came to light in December 2009, he denied there was a cover-up. Cardinal Brady said he had been following his bishop's orders and there were no guidelines for dealing with such investigations at that time. He admitted in hindsight that he should have done more. He said he would take a period of time to decide whether he would resign or not over the issue, and some months later, to use a phrase of Monsignor Denis O'Callaghan of Cork, when it had 'all blown over', he decided it wasn't a resigning matter. Brendan Smith was a notorious child sex offender who was believed to have abused at least 20 children over a 40 year period in the north and south of Ireland. He was eventually convicted and jailed for more than 90 offences, many of them committed after the Brady meetings. The cardinal was on the backfoot again recently, following the publication of the Cloyne Report. He sought to explain why, even after he was advised that a potential seminarian had complained of inappropriate behaviour by the Bishop of Cloyne, John Magee, he publicly defended the bishop in 2009. Cardinal Brady said he was trying to "manage the situation" when asked why in January 2009 he publicly defended Bishop Magee even though a week earlier he was advised of a complaint by a young man against him. The 17 year-old youth complained that the manner in which the bishop dealt with him appeared far from innocent. "I regret any hurt that I caused to people by my statement then but what I was saying was that I wanted Bishop Magee to remain to face his responsibilities and I also came to the view very soon that he should have an apostolic administrator appointed to the diocese," he said. Cardinal Brady said he had not considered standing down because he wanted to press on with his work to ensure there was best practice in Ireland in relation to safeguarding children from abuse. Victims in the past have criticised bishops resigning and running away, he added. The cardinal now has to decide whether it is better for the Church in Ireland that he remain at the helm in Armagh, where he is as a 'lame duck' leader or allow somebody with authority to bring the church through its present crisis.