Fr. Brendan Smyth
What is known about this priest by the public is very little compared to what we will be publishing about him, the most prominently known paedophile of the Roman Catholic Church, he sexually abused and raped defenceless little boys and girls for 50 years. He did this with the full knowledge of the Catholic Church – from priest level to the hierarchy – who moved him here and abroad. Sexually abused children were personally silenced by Cardinal Sean Brady who will have to resign.
The paedophile priest Brendan Smyth was sentenced to 12 years in July 1997 in the Four Courts, Dublin.
Cardinal Sean Brady, the head of the Catholic church in Ireland, was involved in an alleged cover-up of child sexual abuse complaints against Brendan Smyth, Ireland’s most notorious paedophile priest.
Brady, the archbishop of Armagh and primate of All Ireland, has confirmed to The Sunday Times that he attended a secret canonical tribunal, or internal church hearing, in 1975 at which two of Smyth’s young victims were required to sign an undertaking on oath that they would not discuss what happened with anybody other than an approved priest.
The cardinal is being sued both in his personal capacity, as a priest who took part in the canonical tribunal, and as the primate. The other two defendants are Gerard Cusack, Prior of the Norbertines, Smyth’s order, and Leo O’Reilly, Bishop of Kilmore, the diocese where Smyth was based.
The hearings were held behind closed doors at the Dominican friary in Dundalk, Co Louth, and at Smyth’s Norbertine order’s Holy Trinity Abbey in Kilnacrott near Ballyjamesduff, Co. Cavan.
Brendan Smyth, 1965
Brendan Smyth’s grave – Kilnacrott Abbey
Watch the BBC docudrama: Brendan Smyth – betrayal of trust, visit our videos page.
Click here to read the Eureka online encyclopedia entry for Fr. Brendan Smyth