Religious order 'shielded child sex priest'
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Your support makes all the difference.THE IRISH Catholic Primate, Cardinal Cahal Daly, was aware for four years of allegations of child sex abuse against an Irish priest, but was allowed to continue working in posts involving contact with children, it was revealed.
Brendan Smyth, a member of the Norbertine Order, was sentenced to four years' imprisonment by a court in Belfast in June after he admitted 17 separate charges of abusing eight children in the city over a 24-year period.
The Irish head of the priest's order, Father Kevin Smith, even gave references for Smyth, when he applied for hospital chaplaincy posts, which did not mention his paedophile past. This allowed him to continue in these posts until September last year, two-and-a-half years after Belfast police had first laid sex abuse charges against him.
A religious source has claimed Smyth's paedophile activities were known to his order 30 years ago. In 1968 it sought treatment for him and the following year it was recommended he should not leave the order's monastery unless accompanied by a trusted priest.
But the order responded to the allegations by re-assigning him to posts in various countries. The Norbertines have yet to reveal the full list of posts the priest held, but they are known to have included spells in Scotland, Wales and the United States, as well as Ireland.
A spokesman for the Irish Catholic Church said a third party outside the Norbertines had alerted Cardinal Daly to the allegations in 1989. Cardinal Daly had then alerted the Irish head of the order.
At the weekend, Cardinal Daly appeared to blame the order for failing to deal with the affair earlier. He said he was 'as shocked as anyone could be'.
'I had no involvement, nor knowledge of that situation and am appalled to think that over such a period of time this priest was tragically allowed to go from place to place and wreak havoc. I don't easily cry, I confess, but I have unashamedly cried with families who came to me to tell me of a child of theirs that had been abused many years ago but whose whole life had been affected by that,' he said.
The cardinal claimed he had been constrained from intervening 'by the reality that his Superior was the one to whom he (Smyth) was subject, the only one who could control his movements'.
The Church was now learning rapidly how to handle such cases.
In a letter from the cardinal to the family of one victim in 1991, quoted by an Ulster Television investigation, he confirmed his prior knowledge of the assaults. 'There have been complaints about this priest before and once I had to speak to the Superior about him. It would seem that there has been no improvement. I shall speak with the Superior again,' he added.
The case has caused a public and political outcry in Ireland. Last week the Irish health minister, Brendan Howlin, announced new garda screening procedures to prevent known sex offenders from being appointed to posts linked to child care.
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