Head of Irish Roman Catholic church will only quit at Pope's orders

DUBLIN, Ireland (AFP) -- The head of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland said yesterday he would only quit if Pope Benedict XVI asks him to go, following allegations over his role in a clerical sex abuse probe.

Victims' groups want Cardinal Sean Brady to quit over revelations he attended 1975 meetings where children allegedly abused by one of Ireland's most notorious serial paedophiles were asked to take a vow of secrecy.

One woman abused as a child said Brady had "unclean hands" which bore "the bloodstains of many victims" and urged him to go -- while the opposition Labour party called for a police probe into his role.

Speaking on BBC radio, Brady said that 35 years ago there had been a culture of "silence" and "secrecy" about sex abuse in both church circles and civil society.

"I will only resign if asked by the holy father," Brady said when asked if he would quit if pressure grows further.

A church statement at the weekend said that at two meetings complainants "signed undertakings, on oath, to respect the confidentiality of the information gathering process" concerning Father Brendan Smyth.

Smyth, who is believed to have abused hundreds of children over a 40-year period in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and the United States, was jailed in the 1990s in Dublin and died in prison.

Brady told the BBC's Radio Ulster he knew Smyth's activities were crimes "but he did not feel that it was his responsibility to denounce the paedophile priest's actions".

"Now I know with hindsight that I should have done more, but I thought at that time I was doing what I was required to do," he said.

"I acted with great urgency... I was following the most effective route to have this stopped and that was my main concern and always has been -- the safety of children."

But Helen McGonagle, a US lawyer who was abused by Smyth as a six-year-old in Rhode Island in the 1960s, dismissed the cardinal's defence that he should not be judged on the actions of 35 years ago by today's standards.

"That's absolutely wrong. He is coming to this issue with unclean hands, unclean hands that are borne by the bloodstains of many victims and victims who have committed suicide or attempted to commit suicide," she told Ireland's RTE public radio.

"He (Brady) sat on this information for 35 years regarding Father Brendan Smyth and allowed more children to be abused. He has absolutely no excuse for that, no excuse whatsoever."

Predominantly Catholic Ireland has been rocked by three judicial reports in the last five years revealing ill-treatment, abuse and cruelty by clerics and a cover-up of their activities by church authorities.

Following a Vatican summit last month with all of the Irish bishops, Pope Benedict plans to issue a pastoral letter to Ireland's Catholics about the scandal.

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